Spiral
by YamiYugiPuzzleshipper
Summary: Yugi is well aware of the problem that Yami has brought upon himself, though he doesn't think the other realizes it just yet. But he will, because he'll be unable—as always—to help himself later. He recognizes the downwards spiral he's rapidly approaching. Dark Werewolf Puzzleshipping AU


**Warnings: Darker content, Rape attempt, Mental imbalance/illness, Death of minor characters, Mention of slight aquaphobia, Brief contemplation of suicide, Self-Harm, Murder, Underage drinking, Mentions of sex, Sexual situations**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Yugioh.**

 **This is a darker Puzzleshipping story I came up with a long while back. It was created to show the mental differences between the hellhounds and lycanthropes. And it worked as an exercise to help get back into _Shadows That Bleed_ when I was stumped. **

**The roles are reversed, with Yugi as a hellhound and Yami as the lycanthrope. The reason being was I could see Yami as being the patient one in terms of mating, almost to the point of sitting back for years to find the perfect opportunity to leap into action. Yugi I can see as more likely to either lose patience and push for his desires or let the opportunity pass due to his shyness. So, with that in mind, it made more sense.**

 **Yugi might seem slightly out of character. His personality is somewhat twisted in order to suit the plot of this one-shot. He's also slightly violent. He has a jealous streak, which I don't normally attribute to him or Yami (It's more a Rebecca or Anzu kind of thing). Yugi has a darker personality than I suppose he'd truthfully have (the Orichalcos events of season four don't count). Yami has some more bloodthirsty qualities to his nature as well. He's a little bit more violent than usual, but just remember season zero.**

 **SO, Yugi is the hellhound. Yami is the lycanthrope. Go into the story prepared for that shift of attitude. The story is told in present tense. And their relationship is a lot more complicated than the story lets on. Have fun~**

Spiral

Yugi is barely paying attention as their teacher drones on about another new student. There have been a lot recently, what with the fires that happened only days before in a couple of neighboring cities. Yugi knows the names of them somewhere in the back of his mind but he doesn't care enough to think about them for more than a few moments.

He taps his pencil against the desk and ignores the dull monotonous speech, wondering if this new kid she's talking about is male or female. Their name is unisexual, he realizes with a small grin. Like his own, and he thinks he'll find it even funnier if perhaps, like him, the other is a male with a name that leans more towards the female population.

He chews his cheek, eyes flickering towards the door where the small window into the hallway makes his attention drift momentarily. There is no one standing on the other side of it, though he can hear voices. They drift like a stray breeze on a hot summer day and it makes his skin prickle as he sits straighter and narrows his eyes into slits. One of the voices is deep and powerful, oddly beautiful in a way.

It makes him lick his lips and press his tongue to the roof of his mouth. They only speak once, however, and he knows that the odds are against them talking again. They must have answered a question he missed.

The small teen leans a little further into his desk, left elbow pressed into the cold wood. His eyes are sharp as he looks at the teacher and waits with an anticipation he hasn't felt in years. The last time Yugi felt this way was when he was fourteen and went to that party with the sixteen-year-old and—he shuts the thought out.

It's not worth reliving, though the sensation is powerful and he wants to drown in it as he had once before.

This newcomer is obviously male, considering the deep voice, and he enjoys the way it still reverberates in his ears even as the door opens. A student is leading the other into the room, dressed in the usual uniform but with a small badge in the corner that says he's part of the welcoming committee.

He wants to laugh. That's really the name that is printed on that little square of plastic. His lips curl into a smirk, amused as he looks it over again with the impulse to laugh mockingly, and then turns to the other student.

He sits straighter, entire body growing ramrod straight as tingles make his skin heat and the muscles coil beneath his skin. His mouth opens slightly, drawing in a deep breath to scent the other and see if he smells as delicious as he manages to look. A drifting scent like ice and pine with the lingering hint of mint and moonlight make his skin crawl with pleasure and a brief sense of disdain. The other boy is standing straight in front of the others, introducing himself as Yami Sennen—Yugi recognizes the name but doesn't care to remember where from—and his eyes are drifting.

When they lock, both of them have the impulse to curl their lips back in frustration at one another. It's not unusual for them to share the same space, because they always have and most interactions are easy and neutral, requiring no effort on anyone's behalf. School is a ground where there are too many to count and no one cares enough to form allegiances for the short three years they will be there.

Still, both of them size each other up.

Yugi allows himself to leer at him, both mockingly and with such apparent appreciation that the other boy shifts awkwardly in front of the class. The only available seat is in front of him, the small teen thinks with satisfaction, lips curling upwards into a grin even as he takes in his lean shape and powerful features. He looks like the average teenager, but his eyes are sharper and more cautious and hold such intelligence that it makes it impossible for one to dismiss. He's short, more compact in shape, but his shoulders are broader than Yugi's own, though his frame is somehow thinner, and he thinks he's malnourished for a moment. But he can't smell a weakness on him, so he dismisses the thought as the other is instructed to take the seat in front of him.

Yami doesn't give him anything other than a glance—which is more than the others are graced with as some of the girls giggle and gossip and the guys plan to make him part of their after school activities—as he takes a seat. Instead he drops his bag without thought on the floor beside him, lazily slouches in his chair in a show of defiance towards his curiosity, and watches the teacher.

Yugi finds this hilarious and, unable to help himself, leans forward to whisper in his ear. The statement is cool and calm, but so low and dangerously sultry that Yami's shoulders bunch in front of him and his head turns slowly to regard him, eyes wide in shock.

"Wolves make me orgasm."

For a moment there is nothing Yami can think of to say in response, and then, with practiced fluidity as he gazes at him in pure mocking amusement, the other turns fully to stare at him. "That's funny, because dogs just _don't_ seem to do it for me," he says with a keen sharpness that makes the other boy's gut twist and coil with heat, already lit on fire with these simple words.

But the way their eyes lock is Yami's mistake. It's a fatal one, as Yugi realizes he's unable to stop himself from leaning forward to peer in shock. His eyes are some of the most gorgeous things he has ever seen, so tempting to drown himself in, and his mouth curls into a wider smile as he leans forward.

Yugi is well aware of the problem that Yami has brought upon himself, though he doesn't think the other realizes it just yet. But he will, because he'll be unable—as always—to help himself later. He recognizes the downwards spiral he's rapidly approaching.

* * *

He runs his pencil's eraser through Yami's hair the next day. The other teen shivers and bunches his shoulders up, turning his head just enough to glare at him from the corner of his red eye. But he's laughing, Yugi realizes, and he gives him a crooked grin when he sees him trying to smother that automatic response. His jaw keeps ticking and his eyes are flashing like warning beacons, but he can't quite put enough fire behind the glare to make Yugi want to stop.

It's harmless, especially compared to some of the things he did to get the girl to notice him.

Yami is extremely relaxed about it, despite the differences between them. It's strange to think that this lycanthrope is calm around hellhounds. After all, hellhounds _are_ the reason the he's stuck in a new school.

The small teen is suddenly desperate to see just how far he can push before he provokes Yami's ire.

But he's in no rush to do that as of yet.

* * *

Yami turns to him two days after he's introduced to the class. They have to work together on a miniature quiz. All of the others are partnered up for the assignment but—Yugi notices with extreme satisfaction—the other teen merely twists around in his seat when that nameless moron next to him asks. He wonders if it's rude to think of her as worthless when his attention flickers over her heavily caked eyes and the extra mascara used like kohl to make her gaze look bigger. But he doesn't care for her and he can't find a reason to make her existence a part of his own bubble of space. Especially when Yami is writing on his sheet of paper around telling her that he's going to work with Yugi on this.

He realizes immediately that the other only chooses him for the very reason of not being ogled by the girl next to him. She's made it obvious she's interested and Yami is trying to give her the same directness in refusal of her blatant affection. Yugi doesn't care what the reason Yami is turned around, however, just that he is, and when he stops writing and looks up and their eyes lock like they did before, he wants to lean forward and sink his teeth into the other boy.

"You have the actual textbook, right?" Yami says in a low, slow drawl, voice sarcastic and dry, not the least bit appreciative towards the things he must see in his eyes. "Because mine got burned when I left it in my locker. They're giving us new ones next—"

"You could share mine until you have your own."

He offers it like someone would propose sex and Yami blinks in surprise at the tone. The taller boy's eyes widen briefly and his jaw twitches, teeth sliding to the right for a split second as his lips purse. He looks startled and confused by his words, as if he cannot fathom the statement that has left his mouth, but he blinks after a moment and abruptly looks away.

"Hell, we can even share a locker until you get your own."

This statement makes the other's jaw tic forcefully and Yugi can hear his teeth grind together. It sounds like Yami is fighting the urge to snarl in frustration. He must not be used to someone being direct or messing with him in such a way, if his reactions are anything to go by.

Yugi finds it satisfying to think of such a thing, because now he wants nothing more than to break him in.

"Thank you for the offer," Yami says with some kind of practiced elegance that makes his own jaw clamp in frustration and eyes narrow into slits of frustration. "But I think I will manage just fine on my own. Now, if you would allow me to see your textbook—"

Yugi pushes it towards him but when the other boy reaches, he catches his hand, eyes burning into his as he looks at him in surprise. His lips pull back into a wide smirk, showing off his canines, and he shifts forward with a single flick of his tongue over his lips. "Why don't you pull your seat over to the side over here and that way we can _both_ read it, Yami?"

He's purring and the use of his first name makes the other's eyes widen briefly before narrowing as his jaw tics again. For a moment Yami says nothing and then abruptly he gets up, pulling his chair along behind him to take the spot next to him. However, Yugi notices with laughter, he twists the chair around and sits in it backwards, straddling it and using his knees as a way to keep a clear barrier between them.

"Do you know what we're doing?"

Yugi smiles in amusement and taps his pencil against his paper before shifting his chair closer. Yami has made a clear wall between them, but not enough to deter him from coming within inches of him. And the other is too stubborn and defiant to back down, staying exactly where he is and peering at him with an expression that speaks of malice. Yugi brings his head within an inch of his so that their breaths pass over each other's skin and whispers, "You'll have to be a bit clearer with your question, Yami. I don't think we're talking about the same thing."

"Obviously not," Yami agrees in a low growl. "What, may I ask, are you _thinking_ about?"

Yugi is blatant as he responds, leaning a little closer. "Fucking you."

To his credit, Yami does not even look surprised.

Rather he merely stares in response and then rolls his eyes before sighing roughly and looking towards the ceiling. He is exasperated rather than put off, Yugi realizes, and he nearly wants to laugh because the game is only starting and the other is already so tired. "Okay, well, if you could maybe help me with the assignment like I originally—"

"Why don't dogs do it for you?" he cuts in, licking his lips and nearly managing to brush his tongue over Yami's mouth with how close they are. The other refuses to back down, however, despite the close proximity, as if it is a matter of life or death for him to remain exactly as he is beside him.

Yami wrinkles his nose, distaste apparent. "You have nothing to offer me. Any of you." He says the statement so plainly but with such a lethal edge that Yugi nearly flinches back and just barely manages to hold himself there. His sharp eyes are burning into his, full of mockery and disgust, and Yugi's blood boils briefly within his veins. "My experiences with you all have been rather…shall we say… _disappointing_?"

"I could change that."

"You must be a special brand of stupid, Yugi," he snaps, though he leans forward abruptly and their lips brush briefly. Yugi is caught off guard by the movement and the use of his name in that beautiful voice and so doesn't realize he's reaching forward. Yami's hand crashes into the skin of his leg, nails digging into his inner thigh. Yugi hisses and jerks back a small inch but quickly recovers, refusing to be pushed away so easily. "I've killed a few of you before—for that very reason."

Yugi chuckles, the pain in his leg quickly turning pleasurable and sending shivers up his spine as he leans closer again. Their lips brush once more and Yami snarls softly, a low noise like a car's engine beginning to come to life. He doesn't pull back this time, however, and his mouth is still against his even as he says, "You couldn't kill me if you tried, Yami."

They stare at each other and then abruptly the new student jerks away from him, but his nails dig deeper into his flesh. Yugi feels blood beginning to well even through the fabric of his pants. He wants to laugh but rather he licks his lips and enjoys the way that Yami unconsciously pushes him further towards that blackness in the center of his mind.

* * *

Yugi is admiring his jaw as it works on a piece of gum in his mouth. Yami is ignoring him as he watches the screen in the center of the room where a video is playing against the white sheet. His eyes are reflective, giving off glimmers of the images, but they're glazed over as well, and it's clear he's not so much watching as he is lost somewhere in his own head. His thoughts must be extremely interesting, and Yugi wants to pick at them as he stares at him harder and wishes he would glance at him.

* * *

He traces his pencil up the back of his neck once more, tangling it in the long tresses of red-tipped black hair, and Yami glances back at him.

The teacher has not arrived for homeroom yet.

Several others are playing a card game in the corner.

Yugi is watching him with lidded eyes, his intentions obvious as the other regards him momentarily. Yami's own gaze drifts across his entire form, once again distasteful, and he turns away promptly to face forward once more. Yugi smiles, because that little gleam in his eyes when he glances at him, despite being the wrong emotion, has become something of the center for him.

* * *

He finds that Yami has grown calmer the sixth day he's at Domino City High School. He's more relaxed and easygoing now. The first few days he was always watching keenly, looking ready to snap at anyone who drifted too close. He doesn't give Yugi that same look anymore, though it's merely replaced by a blank boredom.

He also does not look inclined to touch him as he had that one day. Yugi still has little crescent-shaped marks on his leg, though that's because he keeps sinking his own nails into them to make them bleed again. He's enamored with the sensation, especially because of the source of it all.

He blinks teasingly at Yami when he glances back at him. His red gaze is shadowed by something like a drifting thought long-forgotten and his attention seems scattered. But he focuses on him momentarily, eyes burning into his for the briefest of seconds, before he turns away again.

Yugi tries not to but he feels the purr building up in the back of his throat as he leans forward again.

* * *

"I bet I could kick your ass," he says without preamble. He's been listening to Yami's conversation with the girl next to him and he hasn't shown her any attention but he's been watching the other boy the whole time. Yami pauses in front of him and then turns his head in a questioning confusion, blinking in shock at his strange statement.

"You think you could kick my ass?" he repeats slowly, narrowing his eyes. They have not seen each other in a day because of Sunday being their day off from school, but he realizes that Yami looks just as beautiful as always. The defiance is burning brightly in his eyes, questioning and tempting him like flames drawing forth a moth. "You actually want to fight me?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun," Yugi says, leaning forward and giving him such an intense stare and wide smirk that the girl beside Yami looks as if she's embarrassed to be in the same area as them. She looks like she's just stepped in on her parents having sex and has no idea what to do about it because she shouldn't be there and it's too terribly obvious to everyone around her. "Winner gets to have sex with the loser."

She blushes bright scarlet. The color makes Yugi press his tongue against the back of his canines, squeezing the muscle harshly until it throbs with the force of it. The rush the heavy stream of blood brings to his head makes him want to look over and draw in a deep breath. He hasn't tasted blood in a while and it makes his senses reel as he wants nothing more than to swallow a mouthful.

Yami merely stares at him and then tilts his head to the side, chuckling softly. It's obvious he sees his weakness in that moment. His neck is exposed mockingly, daring him with tempting little wordless whispers for him to try to bite him. His eyes are dancing and his mouth is pulled into a cocky, schoolboy half-smirk that makes him look devastatingly young.

Yugi feels his stomach clench momentarily at the sight of it, wondering briefly if he even knows the darkness that he himself lives in, if Yami's ever been exposed to something like that before.

"You're speaking my language, but you're not the one I would waste my precious time with," the taller teen states, reaching over to run an index finger along the bottom of his jaw. He gulps and the movement makes his nail press gently into his skin. Yugi wants nothing more than to tip his head down until Yami's nail splits the soft flesh and his finger is coated bright red.

" _Hmm_ ," he hums, unable to stop himself from letting out a small bit of pleasure. He wants so much more but he refuses to press any further. Yami is playing with him, relaxed in doing so, but Yugi knows as well as the other that things can change in the blink of an eye.

Their gazes locked for a moment too long could result in punches thrown, their skin touching for more than a set amount of time and blood could be drawn. Yugi knows he is slowly but surely finding his way beneath the other's skin but he is also aware that Yami does not want to hurt him.

If he pushes too far, however, neither of them can be held accountable for their actions afterwards.

His finger is pulled away, ghosting over his skin like a soft trickle of water, and the trail of fire it leaves behind makes his veins burst into flames. Yugi wants to lunge forward and lock their mouths together, but it would most likely end up with his face torn off in retaliation. Yami is not that interested in him at the moment.

It will take longer _—much_ longer, he realizes as despair settles in his chest.

It tastes familiar, however, and he welcomes it like an old friend.

* * *

Yugi's hands are shaking as he licks the blood off of them. He's hungry and tired, and the blood on his fingers tastes salty and gross. He's seated at Burger World with his best friend Jonouchi, the two of them sharing a couple of burgers and a basket of fries as they always used to growing up. He's cut the skin between his middle and ring finger on his right hand and it's bleeding profusely.

He knows why but he doesn't mention it as he licks at the beads of bright red.

Jonouchi gives him a concerned look but doesn't bother with questioning him. Yugi is weird about some things, especially when it comes to blood; specifically when it's his own. He tends to hate people fussing over a cut, even if it bleeds badly, and he will ignore someone for days if they draw attention to it.

So Jonouchi doesn't question it and instead finishes off the last bite of his burger, watching him.

Yugi's eyes are distant and distracted, blank and hollow. His tongue is flickering and tasting his own blood, salty and metallic and harsh against the muscle. It looks almost like he's stuck his entire hand inside of someone and coated himself in their blood. His entire hand is growing bright red. It's dripping drastically and splattering into his soggy, ketchup-soaked bun and staining the checker-patterned paper on the table beneath it.

Jonouchi cringes, but still does not say anything. He doesn't want to draw attention and he really hates it when Yugi ignores him like he's so prone to doing. It took him forever just to get him to come out with him again and he doesn't want to throw it away like that. But the sight of his blood makes him queasy, and he almost wants to get up and leave him; possibly to puke or maybe to just get away for the rest of the day.

Yugi is extremely anemic; he has to be. No one normally bleeds so much due to something as simple as a cut between their fingers like this. Either he's anemic or the paper that had lined his burger moments before was a lot thicker than Jonouchi's own.

Yugi turns his head abruptly, eyes locked on the window, glittering and harsh, and they are burning brightly as they peer past the glass. Jonouchi turns his head as well and his mouth grows dry in curiosity. Vivian Wong is standing nearby, talking to another girl with manicured nails and bright red hair like fire.

He wonders where Mai is, because he knows where they are she's never far behind, but it's been a long time since he's seen her. What, two years now? He thinks he probably hasn't seen her because their circles of friends are nowhere near the same.

But he worries sometimes.

Every now and then someone goes missing or a body winds up somewhere.

He doesn't want to think about it.

* * *

"Your hand looks like you took a butcher knife to it."

It's the only greeting Yugi gets as he takes his seat behind the other boy. Yami is not even looking up, still focused entirely on his phone. He's texting someone, and when Yugi leans forward, he realizes that whatever it is Yami's discussing with the other person is not for his eyes merely by the way the dialect seems frank and harsh. It must be political, short and to the point for others to understand.

"I cut it eating out yesterday."

Yami tilts his head. "With what, a chainsaw?" he scoffs. He sends whatever message he was typing and turns to face him fully. His eyes are sharp and unconvinced, cynical as they burn into his. He's not buying his explanation that he cut it while at a restaurant, but Yugi has no other story to tell him. He slit the skin with the wrapping paper when he was placing his burger down again. Jonouchi watched it happen—he can testify.

He just can't explain _why_ it happened. And Yugi isn't truly willing to spend much time thinking about it any longer. The truth of it is, it reopened that night when he'd gotten home. And it had bled severely, his anemia a million times worse than normal.

Not only that, but then the skin had become inflamed. Truthfully, it looks more as if he got bitten by a dog, less like he had a run in with a butcher knife. But it also looks worse than usual because he clawed at it with his finger a couple of times when the scab was first formed.

Yugi has a problem with not being able to leave it alone when he's hurt.

But Yugi doesn't care enough to say this. Instead he smiles and leans forward, licking his lips as he settles his arm on the desk and raises a brow. "Why? Are you worried about little old Yugi?"

His lips pull into a lopsided smirk. "Because you occupy so much of my head space," Yami drawls, a distinct purr lacing the undertone beautifully like a pulled bow. Yugi swallows thickly at the sound of his voice, how sultry and dangerously keen it is, and wants to wrap it around himself, smother himself with it. He wants to have nothing in his head but those words said in that tone, with the entire world nonexistent in the background.

He wants to be lost and only find himself in it. He cares for nothing else.

Except the boy himself.

He wants Yami more than he thinks he's wanted anything else in the longest of times.

* * *

Yami is exhausted when he finally manages to pull himself to his paws again. His limbs ache. His mouth feels dry and his gums burn from where the teeth pushed through the tender flesh. His spine is stretched and contorted beneath his skin. Every nerve in his body is aching and desperate for the release of tension.

He's been in one form for too long, and it's made the entire process of the Change much harsher than it should ever have to be.

He closes his eyes, flicking his ears to draw in the sounds around him. The forest is unnaturally quiet, he finds with dissatisfaction. He's not heard such an intense muteness among the trees in what feels like forever. The thought is disturbing as he flattens his ears against his skull and trots forward a step. It means either a hunter is around or another werewolf.

He doesn't want a fight if he encroaches on a hunt. That's the last thing he wants. He's tired and sore and he hasn't slept properly in a week and a half. Something about the boy behind him in class has driven him too far out of his comfort zone. It's eerie how unnatural his presence is to him, despite his usual ability to grow used to and adapt to such things in only a small matter of days.

Yugi is too far in his bloodstream, like some kind of growing infection.

Yami doesn't know what to do about it, and it makes him even more stressed than his responsibilities. The other boy is killing him slowly but surely, and he doesn't understand why or how Yugi's managed to wrap himself so firmly around him.

He continues forward several steps, sniffing the breeze, and his ears prick in shock.

Something is behind him, hurrying forward. He spins, snarling and chomping his teeth. The shadows greet him with silence but a squirrel clicks its teeth at him in irritation in the branches overhead. The female it was attempting to woo is running now, unable to remain within the same proximity as him and his growing frustrations. The male, however, is too proud to turn away and flicks his tail angrily at him.

Yami thinks momentarily of how easily he could scale the tree and sink his teeth in. But he doesn't, because his fur is in a bristle. Every nerve in his body is screaming for attention. Something is nearby and it's heading for him. He knows that but he can't grasp what it could be. And his mind is scattered with the growing hunger making itself known in his gut. The noise it lets out makes him cringe and distracts him just long enough for the other to come forward.

But it's not long enough to render him unable to spin to face it. He is turned immediately. His teeth are bared into a snarl. His eyes are burning. His lips are pulled all the way back. His ears are pricked forward. Every hair on his back is raised in a jagged bristle. His shoulders are squared. His head is raised defiantly, angrily.

What he sees makes him hesitate briefly.

The shape coming towards him is a bright silver, off-white in color, with a bluish tint where the sun touches its coat. It's large but not as immense in size as he. It has a barrel chest, but its body is lean and long. Its legs are limber and thin, appearing almost like skeletal body parts rather than support for its weight. Its head is just as high as his but its tail is wagging outwards, parallel with its spine. Its ears are flat against its skull and its eyes are lowered towards his neck rather than his face.

Everything about this canine is submissive but its facial expression. With its head raised it looks like a challenge as it barrels towards him, but nothing else matches this idea. And, when its eyes flicker to his, Yami realizes with a small recoil that the blue-violet gaze staring at him is Yugi's.

He bristles further, unnerved by this new realization.

He doesn't understand.

It's not a coincidence.

He knows that.

Yugi has not one bone geared towards coincidence.

There is not a single shred of such a possibility in Yami's mind.

Did he _follow him here_?

Yami reels with the idea before narrowing his eyes and growling softly. He knows Yugi probably won't be able to communicate with him completely, considering the small language barrier, but he assumes body language is not an issue. He holds his tail higher and snarls louder as the other approaches him.

For a moment there is only silence and then Yugi lowers himself to the ground, head bowed and tail still wagging as he twists to brace his shoulders against the dirt. He's showing pure submission now, Yami realizes, and the change makes him tilt his head in confusion.

Surely he is not afraid of him, right? Yami can't fathom how he could be. His tongue is never restrained and as sharp as always and his blatant flirtations never fail to push at his nerves and he has not once lessened his efforts despite his responses to it.

He is larger than him, yes, but his body mass is hardly a few pounds heavier and Yugi can brace himself and force him away should he attack. And Yugi's jaws are larger, firmer, and his cheeks fuller, meaning he can hold more of his flesh in his teeth if they turn to blows.

So why is he submitting?

Yami stares at him as Yugi rolls completely onto his back. His paws are folded and his back legs tucked against a soft, downy-furred underbelly. His tail is wrapped inwards and runs along the slope of his stomach. But it's still wagging faintly, as if in sporadic twitches. A soft, begging whimper floats upwards in the air and Yugi rolls his head back to show off his neck in its entirety.

Yami flattens his ears back, unsure of himself, and casts a swift glance around.

Are there others around?

Is Yugi afraid that a patrol of wolves will come and attack?

He's drifted rather far into his territory now that he considers it. His pack isn't going to like the smell, no matter how fleeting it is. Yami makes an abrupt decision in that moment, unable to face the idea of his family hurting the other boy.

He throws himself forward and presses his entire body into Yugi's. It's almost—he thinks—like two snakes fighting over a female. Yugi is on his back and Yami is trying to stretch completely along his body to smother his scent with his own. He's sure that the summer air and all of its heavy breezes will do nothing but toss his scent towards any others in the woods. He doesn't want to fight with any of his family, especially over a wolf that doesn't belong in their territory. Most times it would go without incident but Yugi has specifically found his way to him and that demands bloodshed if he approaches anyone else.

Yami is distracted by these thoughts as he straightens and growls softly for Yugi to remain there. He paces a few small steps, scents the air, but can find nothing but the prey he had formerly been interested in. Either they are all upwind or not in the forest with him.

He's hoping it's the latter.

When he turns back, Yugi crawls forward on his belly, his entire body pressed against the dense undergrowth. His chin is scraping the ground and Yami catches the smell of anticipation but nothing like fear. There's a hint of adrenaline and it makes Yugi's natural scent, like nightshade and ivy and sunlight, sharper than it was before. Yami looks at him, startled by this rather than the fear that should exist there, and watches him as he crawls over like a snake.

Yugi gets to his chin, raises his own, and runs his tongue along the bottom of his muzzle. Yami realizes without much real thought that his tail is already down and his fur is flat again. He doesn't know why Yugi is still going through these submissive postures. He must be scared to go through such effort, but his scent protests any such thoughts. Yugi is still running his tongue along his chin, inching along the bottom of his neck but never further than the end of his cheeks. He's not trying to attack or provoke, simply attempting to get his acceptance.

And yet Yami can't understand why and so he doesn't know how to give it. He doesn't wag his tail or make a noise, merely watching him in a stupor. He's used to some of his own pack doing this because he's the alphas' son. It's to reinforce the bond between the group as a whole, and it makes no sense for Yugi to do that to him. They're not even of the same subspecies or pack—as sometimes they do coexist in such ways—and he can't truly wrap his mind around it.

For a long minute he does nothing, and then he growls softly. Yugi whines but springs to his paws, glad for that note of general acknowledgment from him. Yami watches him for a moment, unsure of what more he should do, and then glances away.

In the moment he turns his head, a paw comes to his shoulder. The claws dig in harshly, the grip almost like fingers trying to pull at his fur. He turns back and Yugi wags his tail happily, still standing there, with his paw against his shoulder, watching him with his tongue lolling. He doesn't recognize the behavior in any way, confused as he stares.

Is he trying to play with him?

Shouldn't he be initiating a play bow and growling softly?

Yami stares at him blankly, confused and unsure of himself, and Yugi whines louder, a low keening noise that grates at his insides. A heat bursts inside of him and warms his intestines, coiling in some way unfamiliar to him. It doesn't spread to his blood, however, and he realizes it's not Yugi asking him to initiate a pact between them to speak more easily to one another.

Yugi's not asking for him to dig his teeth into his skull and split skin and do the same with him. He is far from asking to join the pack or patrol or hunt with him. And Yami doesn't understand what he might be doing if not that.

He stares blankly, expressionlessly, and then twists and spins on him furiously as he tries to pull himself across his back. Yugi throws himself onto his side again, paws flattened against his underbelly, tail tucked but still wagging. He's frozen as Yami growls at him and stares, but it's only moments before his tail falls again.

He doesn't know what's going on. His mind is drawing at a blank. His instincts say that he's trying to assert dominance over him by pressing onto his back. But Yugi's movements are still submissive as he creeps over once more.

He begins the whole process again. Yami lets him lick his jaw until he can't stand it any longer, unsure of what else to do. He growls and then watches him. Yugi is wagging his tail and his tongue is lolling again. His teeth are glittering in the sunlight, dappled by the leaves scattered overhead. His ears are flattened in a way that is passive submissive, the delicate furs in them fluffed outwards in the way they fold.

Yami stares again.

Yugi very slowly raises a paw. For a moment he holds it up, balancing on three legs, and Yami watches him. He doesn't know what else to do. Yugi stretches his paw out. It brushes his shoulder. He waits a moment and then grasps with his claws.

Yami feels that heat inside of him again but this time it feels harsh and his mind races. There's something in this sensation that he's familiar with, long buried due to his own limited experience with such a thing.

The nails dig harder and Yugi whines again, wagging his tail harder. His tongue is flapping now, looking strange as Yami stares some more. It rises up and down like a fisher's bob and he can't stop looking at it. It reminds him of torn meat flattened against a cutting board. His mind is spinning faster. Yugi pushes his weight fully into that limb and Yami finds himself bracing automatically.

It's nothing that he's ever done before but his body recognizes it.

The second paw comes to the middle of his back as Yugi pulls himself forward. There's a delicate arch to his spine, where the fur juts outwards, that makes Yami recoil and snarl in shock. He lunges and his teeth dig into the other's cheek.

Yugi flails but doesn't fight back. He's on his back in seconds. His tail is tucked and no longer wagging. His eyes are averted to the forest floor. His paws are tucked. His breaths come out in low, ragged pants.

Yami now recognizes the hint of primitive instinct that rests in it.

He releases his cheek after a moment and backs up several steps. Yugi rolls over onto his belly and starts forward. Yami bares his teeth, snarling softly, and plants his hindquarters straight onto the ground. The movement makes Yugi spring forward, forgetting himself.

All of the submission is lost in that single moment.

He cries out as if he's been struck violently. His paw scrapes against Yami's spine, claws digging through his fur. He struggles with the task of attempting to pull him to his feet. The noises leaving his mouth are almost like death screams. They're broken and hideous to Yami's ears but he doesn't get to his paws again.

Yugi throws himself to his belly again, crying harder, and for a single second Yami recognizes the desperate plea there. He's begging him, not unlike a scavenger would plead for scraps at a kill. But the desire is far from such a mundane hunger and Yami is horrified that he did not recognize it before.

He curls his tail around his back left leg, not wanting to give Yugi even the slightest bit of room to maneuver. His blue-violet eyes are wide and horrified, desperate by all means, and every bit of his body is trembling as if he's been struck by lightning. His fur is puffed outwards, terrified, and the scent rolling from his body is so intense Yami feels as if it might smother him.

He moves just enough to catch Yugi by the scruff of his neck with his paw. The other werewolf immediately halts his actions beyond his tremors. He's waiting for some kind of sign, hopeful by all means, but Yami ignores this. Instead he hooks his dewclaw in his fur and tugs him towards him. The other canine lowers himself to the ground, placing himself at his mercy as he has each time, and lays there with those same pathetic whimpers leaving him.

Yami remains frozen for a moment and then gets to his feet slowly. He holds his tail up and snarls angrily when Yugi looks at him with wide, hopeful eyes, and then turns and trots off further into the trees. The other canine lets out a harsh bark of alarm, desperate and high-pitched, but Yami ignores it in order to find the bag he has stashed in the roots of a tree. He shuffles through it, grabbing his outfit out with his teeth, and flattens the clothes out on the ground before taking a deep breath.

The Change is much worse this time around. Whereas the first time Yami was merely tired, now he is panicked. He can't keep his mind from hearing those terrified cries Yugi is letting out and his thoughts are racing violently. He feels his muscles locking with the way his fear is eating at his insides. He struggles to breathe properly, because those noises the other werewolf is letting out scare him almost as much as the situation as a whole.

Yami barely manages to get dressed, desperate to get back there to speak to him but also to make a run for it. He doesn't know which impulse is strongest but he very slowly makes his way towards him again. He's shaky, his movements weak and his legs folding beneath him twice, but he eventually makes it over to Yugi. He shoulders his bag awkwardly, swallowing harshly in horror at the very idea of facing the other.

When he steps close enough that Yugi can see him, the tremors grow tenfold but the noises stop.

The gray-white dog's ears fold further back against his skull again and his hindquarters pull only inches from the ground, his tail tucking firmly once more. He flattens himself again, a shaking mass of fur, and Yami swallows hard before walking forward a few more steps.

Yami's gut aches with how violently it twists. He's exhausted, more so than before, and wants nothing more than to lie down and smother himself with a pillow. He's desperate to get away, to just ignore everything around him. He's struggling as he stops a foot away from the other.

His voice is low, harsh with how strained it is, as he chokes out, "Change back."

Yugi merely stares at him for a moment and he can see the displaced confusion and horror in his eyes. He's staring at him as if he has never seen him before, but it clears abruptly as he blinks and then scrambles to his paws. His movements are jerky and harsh but he turns and trots away.

Yami waits where he is, grasping at his bag's strap so violently that the vinyl roughens his palm when he runs it up and down the harsh material. He's trying to steady his breathing and failing horribly when Yugi finally returns.

It's too soon but Yami doesn't let it show.

Yugi is in his school uniform, proof that he followed him straight from the quad to the forest. How Yami had failed to notice is something else entirely, but he can see it now and his throat burns with bile. Outside of school Yugi is always dressed in black—skinny jeans, boot cuts, leather, tank tops, hoodies, jackets, sweatshirts. He has seen him on numerous occasions outside of school and never once has he worn the school uniform.

Yami reaches up to rub at his forehead, breathing roughly. Yugi is trembling again and his lip is bleeding profusely as he stares at him. His teeth have split straight through the skin of it and there's a gaping hole there, making it obvious he did the damage in the time during the Change.

Yami can't truly deal with it, but he forces himself to as they stare at one another.

"We need to talk."

* * *

They don't talk until four days after the incident.

Yugi had fled the moment Yami had turned away from him. The red-eyed teen had just barely seemed to pull it together enough to turn his attention towards the sky. But when he had turned back, Yugi had made sure that he was long gone before he could even blink. He had fled straight to his house and hidden upstairs in his room for hours, refusing to come out even for dinner when his grandfather had asked him what he wanted to eat.

Yugi is picking at the straw of a soda he just got from the vending machine. His hands are shaking so violently that someone nearby is muttering that he must be going cold turkey with his drug withdrawal. He looks at them and his lips curl back so that each of his teeth shows in the sunset. He wants to spill their blood as they jump in shock and turn to flee around the corner. He wants nothing more than to follow them and rip their throat open. He's in the worst shape of his life, he realizes with despair.

It's worse than even the time that he—

He forces the thought away and instead grips the can in his hand so violently that the soda rushes up to the top. It sprays him in the face and shoots up his nose. He snarls in hatred, the pain making his eyes burn and his ears ring.

He reaches up to rub at it, only to stop short.

Someone is already touching him, the movements hesitant but insistent and the warmth greeting his skin making him shiver. It's a familiar sensation and something that lingers in the back of his mind like a burning flame. He recognizes it even with his eyes closed, and he thinks for a moment that he must be reliving one of his numerous fantasies. It's pathetic how quickly his own life has turned on its side with the addition of this one boy, how immense and catastrophic this spiral has become.

It's all-consuming and he wants to laugh and sob all at once. It must be a hallucination, phantom hands, that gently rubs over his cheeks where the skin is soaked. His mouth is still curled into a soundless snarl, lips drawn back, and he can't imagine that anyone would be foolish enough to touch him in such a state.

But the sensation is too real, he begins to suspect, his blood burning in his veins with the thought. Yugi can only imagine the ghosting of fingers because Yami has never actually touched him for longer than tearing his skin open that one time.

He's only brushed his finger beneath his chin that time afterwards.

When Yugi blinks his eyes open, he expects it to be someone else. His mouth falls open, expressionless safe for shock, and his eyes are the widest he's ever felt them stretch. He's horrified and dumbfounded as he stares at the other before him. Yami is focused on rubbing the soda from his face so intensely that he does not look at him. He supposes that serves as a saving grace for both of them.

He doesn't think he can face him and he knows from the way that Yami momentarily falters that he is not ready either. But he's _here,_ Yugi realizes with a strange and devastating mixture of flattery and horror. He's right in front of him, checking for more soda on his face and then pulling back only a step. He's extremely close to him, because he knows that Yugi is liable to run, and neither of them is completely sure whether he will or not.

Yugi nibbles his bottom lip and then licks his mouth but it tastes salty like sweat and he knows he's broken out in a nervous perspiration. It is not visible on his face yet, however, and he is thankful for that at least.

But how do you go about talking to someone like this? He had tried to push Yami into mating with him. He'd nearly raped him. And yet here Yami still is, in front of him, having found some way to put it aside just enough to face him at the moment.

"We still need to talk."

He cringes, unsure of what more to do, but nods stupidly, and looks at the trashcan a few feet away. He thinks briefly of fleeing but he realizes with the subtle tension in Yami's body he will catch him. Apparently he is beyond the stage of running and has moved to a confrontation that he wishes didn't need to happen. He swallows hard but stumbles past him towards the trash. Yami is a step behind him, and he can hear his breathing as it scrapes out of his lungs with such force that it sounds like ice breaking. He's barely keeping himself together, and his scent gives off the immense fear that he is trying so hard to contain.

Yugi is shaking again as he dumps the can. He's afraid for another reason than Yami and it's more selfish than it is anything else. He feels pathetic as he truly considers it and he wants to cry out in disgust at himself. He shakes his head as he glances at Yami from the corner of his eye.

"Where do you want to go?"

There is a long silence and then Yami turns his head towards the chicken fast food joint down the street. "We'll go there," he states firmly, nodding once without a second glance at him. He starts forward but stops immediately and turns his head enough to watch him from his peripheral when he doesn't instantly follow. Yugi swallows hard and then follows after him, hands still shaking, entire body feeling as if it is vibrating as he closes his eyes briefly and breathes in roughly.

The restaurant smells of harsh grease and meat and Yugi feels his mouth water because he also catches a hint of fresh blood. Someone has cut themselves and he's eager to sample it. He's hungry, desperately so now, and he feels disgusting as he takes a seat in front of Yami. The other werewolf carefully avoids looking at him for a moment and they ignore the way that several of the workers glance at them curiously and with obvious confusion.

The work flow is at its minimum considering it is still the middle of the week. They will close early, because they do that each Wednesday, and Yugi feels sick to his stomach as he considers how long they might be there. He wants food suddenly, and he wants to go back to the counter, but when he shifts his weight, Yami's eyes are burning as they bore into his skin.

They stay quiet for a moment. Yami watches the workers in the corner of his eye. They're all whispering about them, shooting little glances their way, confused by their lack of food and checking around to make sure that someone didn't misplace the order somehow. Yugi remains the most solid point of concentration in his mind, where things seem to be echoing and rattling like chains in a cave. He closes his eyes briefly and then breathes out slowly.

"I'm sorry."

Yugi says it so quietly that both of them strain their ears. Yami ignores him, reaching up to rub at his forehead again. A knot is forming in the center of his skin, desperate for attention. He wants to scream in frustration at his inability to come up with something to say.

"Why did you do it?"

It's not the question that Yami really wants an answer to. He thinks he understands it. He knows that hellhounds are chaotic and impossible for the most part. He knows that they have loose control and tend to harm others without meaning to.

He is well aware of just how volatile and how vicious and straightforward they are when they need something that they cannot always get.

"I…I…" Yugi draws a shaky breath and then narrows his eyes. Yami can feel the change in temperature like he can smell the sweat that is drifting from the kitchen. Yugi is swallowing back some of his discomfort. He's struggling with the task, but he's doing it. He's working it out for himself. "I have a problem. Once I take an interest in someone, I can't let them go. It's only happened a couple of times before—once or twice. I… The last time it happened it didn't end very well. It…it starts out innocently enough. It's like a crush at first, simple and easy to manage. But then it gets to the point where I can't leave them alone. It would be something like a little glance and then harmless flirting and then it always escalates. Sometimes I can stop it there, but other times not so much…"

"You said the last one didn't turn out so well. What does that mean exactly?"

Yugi hesitates and then ducks his head so shamefully that Yami has the impulse to reach forward and touch his shoulder. But he's unable to comfort him with his own need to keep himself under control. The impulse to run is growing steadily and Yugi is not making it easier.

"I really don't want to talk about it."

Yami nearly snarls at him that that's harsh, but he doesn't care. But he looks at him and his resolve melts.

Yugi looks as if he wants to burst into tears. He's shaking so hard that Yami wants to hold him for a moment, but the thought drifts immediately.

He doesn't want to hold him.

He wants to know what _happened._

And he wants to know how to get around this whole situation.

In reality, he thinks he wants nothing more.

"And me, Yugi? Where do _I_ stand with this?"

Yugi flinches and runs a nail over the table, licking his lips as he avoids his eyes. "It's gotten worse than the one I had with Mai. I…I don't… I really want to fuck you. I can't stop thinking about it sometimes at night and sometimes when I smell you I can't help but think of how easy it might be to push you up against the wall and—"

" _Enough_. I get the picture."

"No, I don't think you—"

" _Yugi—_ "

"I want to _bleed_ you!" he blurts, cheeks turning bright red as he stares at him desperately. His eyes are wild, shining with lust and desire, and Yami feels his skin crawl as he stares stupidly in response. "I want to taste your blood and fuck you senseless. And I—I'm anemic now because I haven't tasted anyone's blood. And I can't get out of my head how nice you would taste and how great you would sound with me inside of you."

Yami stares at him again, unable to think straight, and then breathes roughly, turning his head a fraction to the left as he considers what to say next. He realizes he recognizes the anemia Yugi speaks of. He's heard of it before in passing conversation about other packs that have hellhounds in them.

The hybrids' blood cells and platelet counts and things of that nature—he doesn't know the full science of it, just the general gist—tend to fall due to a type of chemical imbalance when they don't eat properly. Unlike lycanthropes, the hellhounds need to have a certain chemical within the _human_ body—formed through the preservatives and things of that nature in their foods—in order to keep themselves at their healthiest. The hellhounds will—as far as he knows—dig up fresher graves in order to get the chemical compound formed after death when it is more abundant.

He is unsure how it works and is not entirely sure he cares to know.

It's unnerving to hear that someone wants to drink his blood like that—that someone wants to fuck him raw and drink his blood. He feels like Yugi might as well be a vampire with the way his words are connecting in his head.

Yami feels sick as he shakes his head and swallows hard. This is not a conversation he has ever pictured having in his life. Yugi is obsessed with him, a boy who has apparently done something with a girl so traumatic that he does not even want to speak of it.

Yet, he can say so disgustingly easily that he wants to bleed and fuck him.

He almost wants to cry out in distress. Instead he gets up. Yugi looks ready to spring to his feet and follow him but Yami ignores him. He can't deal with him at the moment. He needs some kind of distraction.

He needs…

"Can I get two chicken finger platters, three baskets of fries and a chocolate milkshake?" he asks as he approaches the counter. He doesn't even take a moment to feel rude as he might have formerly, because thankfully no one is in line, and he has no reason to. The woman behind the counter smiles at him warmly, a flirtatious little thing, but Yami merely gives her a glance that will probably haunt her for the rest of her life.

He pays and returns to his seat a few minutes later. He wanders around for a moment, grabbing a soda and then purchasing a second one which he takes over to the table. He hands the empty plastic cup to Yugi who blinks stupidly at the offer and then quickly jumps up to grab his own drink. He thinks with vivid disgust that Yugi seems a lot happier now that he has the ability to run along and busy himself with something else to do.

But is that not how he feels too?

But then, he has a choice to make, doesn't he?

They come with his large order of food a few measly seconds after Yugi takes a seat again. His hands have steadied somewhat, but his eyes are still lowered away from him and he refuses to speak to him for a minute before he offers food. Then the smaller teen is happy to munch and give him nervous little glances but still refuses conversation.

It is not until Yami is halfway through the third basket of fries that Yugi finally turns to him again. His words are blurted out and his cheeks are red, flushed with embarrassment and horror and panic as he looks at him with wide eyes.

"Why are you doing this?"

Yami considers this question for a moment and then finally sits up, dropping a fry and dusting his hands off. His eyes flicker around briefly and then settle on his again and Yugi looks as if he wants to fall away into the floor at some point. "Because I… Look, Yugi, I'm not going to ignore the fact that _both_ of us share this…unfortunate draw to each other. And I won't let you suffer because of me. So…if you want to fuck, we'll do that. But not right now. I need time to get used to the idea that this is going to happen. Give me at least five weeks minimum."

Yugi chokes on his soda and sputters, covering his mouth where the beverage drips from his fingers and his eyes look as if they might pop out of his head. His expression is nothing short of horrified fascination and avid hope and Yami wishes for a brief moment that he could crush it violently.

It's a natural reflex to want to hurt the one who wishes to hurt you. He thinks that bleeding him would hurt and so he wishes he could crush him.

But he is also drawn to the other boy, and he's not beyond admitting it. He's known it since Yugi had stared at him so blatantly when he first walked into the classroom. He only tolerated the smaller boy's insistence of annoying him for that very reason. If not for feeling that same desire—possibly horribly amplified and heightened because of them both being wolves—he would have snapped at him to knock it off. He would have possibly punched him as well.

Yami decides to push this train of thought aside in order to look at Yugi more closely. The hellhound is not doing so well on recovering from his soda spewing incident and Yami can't help but find it somehow hilarious that the way he found him is the exact same status he inflicts an hour later.

* * *

Yugi gets extra butter on the popcorn and Yami wrinkles his nose. He hates the saltiness from the kernels and dislikes the snack in general. He doesn't know why other people like it so much. He especially doesn't understand how Yugi, a hellhound of all things, who feasts on humans who eat this kind of disgusting things for an _unnatural_ chemical compound found later in the corpses, can eat it. He holds his right hand up when Yugi offers, shaking his head without a real glance at the snack, and leads him to take a seat in the front of the theater. He hopes that the placement will guarantee that the hellhound doesn't mess around and do embarrassing things or try to kiss him or talk to him in low or husky tones.

It's not the seating arrangement that does it.

It's Yugi's own reluctance to be in such a public place and the child screaming in the back row that makes him stay so quiet. He likes the movie but he hates the crowd and he really wishes Yami would have chosen something they could go home with. He realizes Yami doesn't want to give him any ideas about how fast he's going to put out—he cringes at his own phrasing—but it would be much better, right?

Except, even without the screaming and the loud speakers and his tongue feeling blistered when he scrapes a kernel along the roof of his mouth forcefully to keep from snapping in annoyance at the brat's parents, he can't enjoy it. Because the movie just reminds him of how badly he messed up before. The darkened theater only manages to make his stomach twist and his throat burn as his fingers grow sweaty and he tries desperately to focus on Yami's heartbeat in the crowd.

Yugi is surprised by how much it all reminds him of everything he doesn't want to remember. He guesses that shouldn't be shocking, considering that always seems to happen, but he wishes. The small hellhound closes his eyes and tips his head back in his seat, enjoying the effect of his eyelids casting the colors in faint shades rather than vibrant ones like those that are dancing across the screen. The speakers' booming hurts his ears but his focus is caught on that steady, rhythmic noise that makes the madness seem to dissipate into nothingness.

Yami's heartbeat is the only thing that keeps him sane. He finds it kind of funny that the very technique he uses in class to avoid falling asleep is the same lulling him towards an early rest.

He wakes to Yami gently pushing on his shoulder an hour and a half later.

He jerks and startles, the popcorn nearly flying, but he recovers enough to minimize the potential spill. He shakes his head, squinting tiredly, and realizes in the back of his mind that the credits are rolling. And the hand resting against his shoulder is burning hot, sweaty as if the lycanthrope has been startled at some point. But when he looks over, Yami is pissed, and he realizes a second after he opens his mouth to ask what's wrong what exactly it is.

At first Yugi thinks that it's because of the screaming baby—had that not stopped at any point?—or perhaps the fact that he had fallen asleep in the first place. He's about to ask and then apologize when it clicks.

Tonight is the full moon. Yami feels it and it's spurring the Change on him. That's why they caught an earlier showing of the movie. It's the only reason that little kids are allowed in the room in the first place. After sunset all of the mothers leave and the dads come in with their teenagers and kids aren't allowed after dark. It isn't a rule, but it is generally the gist of what happens at the theaters.

Yugi dumps the box of popcorn at the trashcan, ignoring the girl who calls out for him behind the counter. He knows her, but he doesn't care as he starts for the door. The sound of his name, however, gets Yami's attention and the lycanthrope glances back at her curiously before snapping to the more important matters.

Yami's bloodline is more pure, Yugi remembers. He changes on the full moon each month, and he has complete control of it every day of his life outside of it. He's the one of them that is going to always have to be scarce from civilization on nights like these. He feels the moon and knows its position in the sky without even looking. He can name the hours in which it will rise fully without glancing at a clock.

Yugi knows he can do this because he himself can name the first day of winter and the cold drafts to the very minute they will come along due to being a hellhound. Lycanthropes are traditional, following lunar cycles if their blood is less diluted. Hellhounds are forced into the Change when winter rolls around. The beginning of the cold spurs them first and then, on the coldest day, if they have not changed before then, it will force their genetics to alter and trigger it.

Weather dictates Yugi's life, he thinks wryly as he takes a seat on the fallen pine straw thirty minutes later when the two of them reach the tree line. Yami is stripping easily, as if he is not even there, and he knows that he is well aware nothing will happen this time around.

The lycanthrope will hunt.

The hellhound will wait.

* * *

Their next attempt at a date is a dinner at a restaurant that Yami hates. He doesn't tell Yugi that, of course, because the hellhound apparently _loves_ it, but he can't stand fish unless it's salmon. He's more in tune with his instincts as a wolf than the hybrid, he's finding, and it's beginning to tug at his insides with frustration.

It's not Yugi's fault, of course. The lycanthrope and the hellhound are completely different, as much as their personalities are themselves.

Yugi likes the fried fish, the way it's gently baked in bread crumbs, but Yami hates all of it. He forces it down, however, because he doesn't want to make a fuss about it. As long as, at the end of the night, nothing feels as if it is unnaturally forced between them or the tensions are growing too immense, he doesn't give a damn.

* * *

Their conversations are always short and brief at school. Yugi plays with his hair in class, Yami ignores him unless specifically asked a question. Neither of them can figure out who is avoiding when it comes down to it. They both have enough reason to want to stay away and steer clear. So they both try to keep it as simple and nonexistent as possible.

* * *

Yami finally takes notice of something he's been relatively ignorant and blissfully unaware of throughout their time together. His eyes are sharp, however, this night, and his curiosity is peaked. Yugi is seated across from him and they are picking out an ice cream dish for the other—his idea because he wants to know if he can figure out what Yami likes without asking. The other male is busy studying the menu. He doesn't look up even once when the waitress comes over, goes as far as to blatantly ignore her, and leaves him to do the talking.

He looks at his own laminated sheet and raises a brow as he studies the other boy for a moment. When he glances at the waitress, she's staring straight at Yugi who is oblivious to it. His head is buried as if the menu is the most important thing in the world and he has to make sure he gets the right ice cream choice for Yami.

But, as he looks between the two of them, he realizes the other is acutely aware of the girl's stare.

Yugi's shoulders are rising slowly but surely into a bristle. His lip is twitching the faintest bit, the fine hairs there seeming to rise to a stand. His breathing, usually so soft and slow, is becoming faster and shorter. It's becoming obvious that he is going to lose his temper soon enough with her ignorant staring. Yami wants to see it happen but decides he doesn't want to be kicked out of another restaurant. Two of them are enough for him, especially since it's _always_ his "dates" that screw up his time there and get him banned.

"Yugi."

He hums but his head snaps up, curious, his eyes still glued momentarily to the menu before quickly darting to his face. He blinks at him, blue-violet eyes wide as they regard him. He looks childish and cute, so much younger than a sixteen-year-old, and Yami has a moment where he almost wonders at the thought. But the light makes his gaze sparkle like gems and his lashes look longer and he's watching him so keenly with such intense wonder that he doesn't fully question it. It's the environment and the small gleam of hope in the other's eyes that makes him look like this and Yami knows he's had his own moments where he has looked less than his age as well.

"Are you all right?"

The hellhound blinks at him as if he has never seen him before in his life. It's such a dismissive reaction that Yami almost snarls in response. It's a challenging posture in his pack, something that some of the older wolves like to use against him to make him bristle. They push his buttons and he tears their faces open when the challenges break out into full physical altercations. The balance is messed up in the pack, Yami thinks distractedly as he stares at the other boy, and Yugi has no idea he's even mimicking those bored, blank looks.

"Hmm?" Yugi hums it for a moment but then glances at where Yami's eyes were focused before and then turns back. The girl has attempted to offer him a small smile but his quick look away again has left her with nothing to see. "Yes, I'm fine. Why?"

The lycanthrope gives him a small, sneering grin, and Yugi predictably ducks his head shamefully for a moment before huffing loudly. He knows he's been caught, that he can't play at that again. He sighs and rolls his eyes before looking at the menu stubbornly.

"She should be happy with just doing her job," he scoffs angrily, the biting edge to his tone making Yami's brows rise almost to his hairline. His gaze flickers briefly towards the girl and then back and Yugi continues in that same frustrated voice. "Why do they always have to flirt? It's ridiculous."

"Maybe because you're preternaturally beautiful?"

"I'm going to take that compliment and run with it. Thank you."

He rolls his eyes but smiles lopsidedly, leaning forward. "Tell me what's going on?"

Yugi hesitates and his wide blue-violet eyes flicker towards where the girl is watching them. His cheeks grow pale in color, losing what little creamy hue they possess, and the hard swallow he forces makes Yami's ears ring momentarily. The hellhound shifts uncomfortably in his seat and then tucks his hands into his lap and leans back against the leather of the booth. His shoulders are twitching momentarily, jumping beneath his shirt as if no longer attached to his body and living independently the rest of him.

"I… There was a girl. Named Mai Valentine—she was a simple human girl. She was as vain as they came and she always had her hair curled to perfection. It fell to her waist and it was like silken sunlight in color. I called her Goldilocks whenever I flirted with her," he mumbles, shaking his head and groaning softly as he reaches up to pull at his hair. "I had been obsessed with her for two months before I convinced her to follow me home from a party. We were fucking in my room and I didn't have any idea about being a hellhound before then."

Yami squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head slowly. He suddenly realizes where this story is going and he wishes he had never asked. He wants to tell him not to speak any more, that they'll let this be that thing he can keep in his closet and never uncover again.

But he realizes slowly, as if water is splashing over his insides and chilling him, that he can't do that.

He has to know.

Because Yugi mentioned these obsessions before, and now he _is_ one.

He wants to know what happened to the last one. He has to know. There has to be something to help him figure out how to navigate this entire situation, right?

But he also knows where this is going and that's not something that he wants to admit to himself. It's also not something he wants Yugi to have to repeat, even in the nearly overwhelming chatter of the café around them.

"I lost control in the middle of sex. I didn't know how to manage the adrenaline rush. I snapped her pelvis and she started bleeding out internally. I…I was so scared but I was so hungry too—I didn't want to get help to get rid of her body. I was… The hunger was just so strong and I…I ate her. The adrenaline made me change prematurely and I wound up eating her before the night was even over. I burned her clothes and the comforter and mattress that I had. My dad found me and helped with it. He was the one who gave it to me… I didn't know what else to do."

"You killed and ate her? How many people have you done that with?"

"Just her! I…I haven't had sex with anyone else! I just—I've flirted and messed around with a couple of people but I haven't…done that ever since." He flinches and glances at the girl again just as Yami does the same, not impressed with the way she continues to stare at the smaller teen. She's leering now, more than a little pushy in what had been a rather light and flirtatious fluttering of his lashes mere moments before. His voice is low and desperate, eyes wide as they bore into his and a horrified edge creeps into his tone. "Yami, I swear I didn't do it again. I—I learned my lesson. I haven't touched anyone else like that again."

 _Yet you're obsessed with me_ , Yami thinks and the way it sounds in his head makes him want to smile darkly. How twisted and disgusting is it that he finds himself suddenly cornered and well aware of something that he had been thinking of only nights before? _And you want sex with me_.

The disgust is apparent in his eyes as Yugi fidgets and stares at him with an extremely ashamed expression. Yami watches him, somehow finding it even more hilarious that the once cocky and sassy hellhound before him is now nothing more than a mess of nerves in his presence.

 _You want sex with me because I won't_ break.

 _Because my bones are_ harder.

 _Because I could kill_ you _if things got_ too _rough_ …

But mostly he wants him because whatever string that exists between them is growing tighter. Yami realizes he has no choice when it comes down to it. He has been fiddling with the idea for days, wondering if there was more to his story of obsessions. Now, the answer is hideous and he wants to bark out a laugh at his own stupidity.

Of course Yugi would not want to tell him this story.

He would want him to have sex with him out of his own desire.

Not necessity.

But it's rather clear, staring at Yugi as he fidgets again and refuses to raise his eyes from the menu as he breathes roughly, that the entire situation is one big necessity. If he doesn't want someone else to break and Yugi to eat someone as he did his own _best friend's crush_ , then there is no choice.

He'll have to find out a way to push aside his own feelings about the entire situation and sleep with him.

It's not that he cares that some girl might be killed again. He doesn't care about the humans—not at all. When it comes down to it, the reality is that it's them or his family and he'll never choose a human over his pack.

However, he realizes, somewhere deep inside of him, that Yugi is deteriorating rapidly.

His obsession with him is growing more desperate every day. Yami sees it in his eyes, how they brighten and glisten and dance like snowflakes drifting during winter. He recognizes the way he seems to be picturing it all and even tasting his blood on his tongue as they speak to each other.

He feels guilty about what happened with Mai—of course he does, he didn't understand, he had no idea; it wasn't even his fault he was unprepared—but he can't stop himself. He'll spiral further and further until either Yami finds himself losing pieces of himself from pure exposure or Yugi's mind breaks and splinters.

He's playing a dangerous game in all reality. It seems like he's being sweet and considerate if one thinks of it as him giving him a chance to be with him. But in reality, it's the exact opposite. Yami is scared of losing himself completely in Yugi, but by leading him on these dates and refusing to so much as kiss him and delaying the time they should have come to know each others' bodies, he's pushing the hellhound closer to the edge.

His mind is processing it as a potential abandonment and rejection rather than a hopeful chance at them having a relationship.

And Yugi is alarmingly close regardless, considering what he attempted in the woods.

Even hellhounds don't do such things with a potential partner, not unless they are so terribly desperate that they cannot tell the difference between right and wrong. He sees it in Yugi's eyes, like little strips of gold and silver around his pupils, and he can't help the way he wants to puke.

He has to push himself or Yugi is going to go detonate like a bomb.

And he'll take all of Domino down with him.

* * *

His blood tastes rich and thick. It's got a salty aftertaste but it has a sweeter intensity like the serow he often hunts. Yami enjoys it as he draws at it and laps at his wrist with his tongue. It's like drinking an elixir, but it's horrifying somewhere in the back of his mind.

He recognizes the disgust that will plague the rest of the pack's thoughts if they ever find out.

It's not a natural thing for a werewolf to turn their teeth on themselves. But Yugi's very _existence_ is a threat that he can't handle without some kind of relief.

The iron amount is high, healthy, and the wounds clot immediately when he passes his tongue over them. There are faint, nearly nonexistent indentations in his skin, showing the layout of his teeth, his canines especially. None of the blood rises to the surface as it had before. Every vein is a beautiful web of deep blue and a scathing violet. It takes only a minute longer before even the faint traces of discoloration where his jaw attached to his skin fades away completely.

* * *

Yami wants nothing more than to ask if he has a new obsession. It's a terribly cruel thing, but this string between them seems to be tightening even further. He's disgusted by it, but it's only because he has no idea who is leading who anymore. Yugi has so much power over his choices now, but if he says no, he's rather sure his life rests in the hellhound's hands.

There is no way to truly balance on this precipice and Yami wants to tear his own wrists open again as they stare at one another. He wants to drink his blood and release the tension that's already growing so violently beneath his skin and making his body ache so terribly. He wants to be alone to watch it drip and patter in the mirror…

But they keep today a simple one.

"Hey."

"Hi."

* * *

Yugi is slightly horrified but not the least bit surprised. His blood is so thin as it falls from his fingers into the sink that it looks almost like fruit punch. He wants to laugh at the thought, because the coloring is so bright and the liquid so loose and free flowing that it's pathetic. He leans against the metal of the counter and watches it with an intensity in his eyes that makes his skin burn violently. His lips screw up into a callous grin and he wants to run his tongue over it but his own blood tastes too much like salt.

It's like drinking a mouthful of the ocean. He doesn't want to have that same taste on his tongue as he did at Burger World with Jonouchi. There is no reason for him to do so and he feels sick at the thought. He thinks maybe he should put away anything sharp in the house considering just how dangerously unhealthy his body is right now.

He needs to hunt but the only blood he wants flows in the lycanthrope's veins.

So instead he leans against the metal, lowers his chin to touch the smooth surface, and allows it to burn away some of the heat in his skin.

* * *

Yami is sitting in front of him in class when he nicks his finger on the edge of his paper. The paper cut is barely even existent, but he feels like it should have been his entire wrist being chopped open with the way Yugi breathes in raggedly behind him. They both smell it in the air, and for a moment, as they glance at one another when he twists around, they are twin sharks circling the water.

* * *

Yugi plays with his hair again, this time with his fingers instead of his pencil. It's the first time he's actually reached out and touched it and his face splits into a wide grin. It's as soft and warm as silk and when he twists a lock around his finger and pulls gently once, a fresh wave of the other's scent washes through the air. He leans forward, desperate to inhale it, and closes his eyes tightly.

He hears the girl next to Yami turn her head and let out a soft breath. She's startled out of her mind and the hellhound supposes he could see why. Yugi doesn't care, though, especially when he catches the smell that comes with her surprise. She's blushing and the rush of blood makes him want to groan with satisfaction. Between the two scents swirling in his lungs and coating his palate, he's sure the spot between him and his tipping point has just become that much smaller.

He opens his eyes into slits and pulls on his hair gently once more. Yami responds this time. He turns his head, glancing at him in his peripheral, but his gaze is mostly on this girl next to him. Yugi realizes, infuriated by the lack of attention, that the lycanthrope is merely concerned about what she's about to say. He doesn't want her to start talking, because they both know there is enough going around as it is. Someone has mentioned Yugi and Yami at the café and while Yugi doesn't care, Yami has a family that isn't too keen on hellhounds.

The last city he lived in, the hellhounds burned down the school. Yami is fed up with others in the building, occasionally baring his teeth at them, but it's only a show for each of them. The lycanthropes get the satisfaction of knowing that nothing is going to happen because the hellhounds in Domino are better-behaved and have no reason to blow things up. They just like to exist and don't even fight each other over kills in the woods. The lycanthropes are more territorial about that, though, and sometimes lines get crossed where they shouldn't.

Yugi already knows of a fight between one of Yami's pack and one of his own friends. The other hellhound's eye still isn't completely healed over so he can't open it and wears an eye patch. Yami is the one who stopped the fight—Yugi has heard at least—but he knows that if the other hadn't backed down when he had the pack of lycanthropes would have killed him.

They're far more of a pack. The hellhounds are more scattered, but they draw together when they need to. They like a more independent order amongst themselves, and their territories overlap every which way due to city life. There's no reason for them to fight extensively and they enjoy the occasional quarrel to stretch their muscles, but they aren't willing to kill if it's not a life or death situation.

The lycanthropes like order. They like to be dependent upon one another and their loyalties have been intense and overwhelming whenever Yugi has crossed paths with them. Where there is one there is almost guaranteed to be another. When one is upset, the others become that same way. They feed off each other's energies like nothing else. When they mate, they never so much as look at others. And, from what he's heard, the sex is _always_ hot.

Yugi snorts and snickers at that little thought, wanting to shake his head when Yami looks at him fully. He pulls his fingers from his hair and smiles at him. It's somewhere between cold indifference and obvious mocking laughter as well as genuine warmth.

It is not lost on either of them but neither comment, and Yugi turns to the girl.

She seems suddenly so significant to him but when he leans forward, she continues to smell human.

Yugi tilts his head and wants to snarl as his eyes dart immediately to Yami.

If he were not there, would _she_ be the one he would be head over heels for?

* * *

He can't help himself when he makes his way to the playground. It's after dark. The moonlight is weak due to the clouds scattered across its surface. He's hungry and the air tastes cold and harsh despite the summer. He knows it's his own body temperature that has lost its heat, not the evening. He can hear a mosquito humming in the air near him and the sound is so heavy he wants to snarl in disdain. He can taste oncoming rain and he likes it. It makes his skin tingle and buzz as his senses become more alive.

Yugi licks his lips and closes his eyes. The air is so thick it retains the scent he's been following for the last two hours. He can hear her heart as it goes through its lazy rhythm. He can already taste the blood on his tongue as he curls his lips back and stalks forward. She's sitting on the swings, talking on the phone. She's giggling about something. He doesn't hear what the other person is saying.

He doesn't care.

He wants blood.

And it's going to be hers.

She realizes he's there a second too late. He waits until she finishes her phone call and looks ready to get up again. He's in the bushes a few feet away, pressed low to the ground with his teeth bared. His muscles are twitching.

When she looks over, it's because he hisses her name.

"Oh, _Miho_ …"

It sounds like a gremlin speaking or maybe a song being sung in the wrong key. It's disgusting as it leaves his mouth, and she is frozen in place for a moment. She thinks it's not her name but her heart is beating faster with her realization. She knows that he's there and watching. She just doesn't know where and she doesn't want to find out.

He repeats the little call and sinks his nails into the dirt. He's bunching his haunches, making his shoulders rise. He'll only have to leap and she'll drop like a fly beneath his weight. He's not heavy but the momentum will push her straight into the mud.

She very slowly turns, at first as if she can't believe her name is being said. It takes only a moment for realization to strike her, however. She has only turned her face a quarter of the way when it becomes apparent she knows she is about to die. Her hair makes a soft but loud noise as it shifts in the air. It's a combination of the humidity and the enhancement of his senses that make it so terribly keen in his ears.

It sounds almost as vibrant as her heartbeat.

He stays crouched there until she sees him. Then he peels his lips back and shows off each of his teeth. His canines are especially sharp. His eyes are glowing where they absorb what little light exists in the playground. He likes the way her eyes widen in horror.

His name is the last thing on her lips.

* * *

Yami knows immediately what has happened. He ends up twisting around in his seat and looking at him as he sits. Yugi tries to avoid his eyes, because he knows the smug satisfaction which burns there. He knows that if he locks eyes with him, Yami will see everything he doesn't want to. But the lycanthrope stares until he is unable to avoid it any longer, drawn by the blatant challenge awaiting him there. They lock gazes and Yami seems mesmerized for only a split second, the red of his eyes dulling before becoming vibrant again.

"You didn't need to do that."

He says it so quietly that Yugi nearly misses it. He realizes it's not even a reprimand as he blinks wide eyes at him. Yami says it so simply that his stomach clenches. He's sad but he's not surprised, and it does not seem as if he is even disappointed in him. Rather he looks tired and unusually meek and small.

Yugi realizes the words that leave his mouth are wrong before they even get voiced.

"Then who else would it be?"

They look at each other.

Yami is not about to tell him he can't kill. It's not something that a hellhound has a choice in. They kill because it's imperative towards keeping themselves sane and happy. And they eat so that they can survive another day and go through the Change without killing themselves.

Instead the lycanthrope lowers his eyes towards the desk.

For a moment he is silent and then he murmurs, "She wasn't a threat."

Yugi realizes with a small cringe that Yami is being genuine. She was never a threat to him. She could never be. When it comes down to it, the lycanthrope is drawn to him against his better judgment. He might have wanted to know her better, but not like that. Even if he had never met Yugi, she would never have been more than the girl who sat next to him in class.

The one that never missed school and had a perfect attendance record.

Yugi squeezes his eyes shut. He's not guilt ridden by it, however. He's actually frustrated with himself for wasting his time like that. It's not something that most people would understand, but he sees the glimmer of kindness in Yami's eyes and wants to sob out loud.

He's being unnaturally patient with him. He's even staying quiet about everything. He could be putting him down like a dog with the rest of his pack but here he is, giving him a small gentle smile to help him calm down. It's the first real clue that he's not going to leave.

And Yugi _hates_ it.

* * *

The pack finds him a few days after the kill. Yami is in the woods somewhere, Yugi knows, but the lycanthrope doesn't approach him and so the hellhound makes sure to avoid him as well. He smells bears and squirrels and a few stray dogs that have gotten trapped within the forest. He notices the way that bugs sometimes take off beside him as if they are too scared by his naturally imposing presence that they can remain no longer. He keeps his nose to the ground, however, more out of habit than necessity.

He knows where the serow is. He's been tracking it out of boredom long before he even met Yami. It's an unusually large male, with bigger horns than the rest. In fact, they almost sit upon his head like those of the deer in the woods. But he's got the bushy fur and his pelt changes and his horns don't shed as much as the deer's. Besides that, Yugi has tasted his blood and it's not that of the larger herbivore. It's that of an oversized goat-antelope with unusual horns.

He is all too aware of everything around him. He knows of the wind as it shifts and he scents it directly each time. He wants to stay downwind but he knows that there are more than just two wolves here. There are several— _many_ even—and he's not entirely worried about their presence, but he's not foolish either.

With the fight that broke out between his friend and the pack beforehand, he knows he has to be careful. He also knows that should they come up on him while he's eating, he'll have to make a run for it.

But, above all else, he knows he can't scream and draw attention if they do manage to sink their teeth in.

He doesn't want Yami to get hurt, even if it means that he'll more or less be killed by the time it is all over.

He shuffles forward and flicks an ear. He's thinking more clearly now due to his recent taste of blood. Miho's body has sated his need, though it will not last forever nor very long. Yugi is merely waiting it out. He has to find out a way to keep himself busy and entertained. He thinks Yami will have plans to fuck by the end of the month.

He's not sure but he is hopeful.

And then, maybe he can get rid of the spiral some.

Maybe he can even _reverse_ it a little…

Yugi pads forward and sniffs the air again as it changes. He freezes and then turns to head to the right, away from the serow's path. Yami is somewhere ahead of him. If it's a customary patrol of the pack, that means they will all be nearby. He is the alphas' son and natural birthright proclaims him leader should his parents not be there.

But, as he moves towards a small creek, hoping to follow it upwards, the wind changes again.

The scent is coming from behind him now. He spins, bristling now, and his lips curl back in confusion.

There is nothing there…

The wind changes again. It comes from the west and with it is a fresh lycanthrope scent.

A change towards the east and he is hit with another wave.

Yugi finds his heart hammering in realization. The wolves are circling him. They are gathered around and waiting for the first hint to spring forward. Yami's scent is lost to him now and he knows abruptly that this is not planned. They are hunting—they must be. To be spread so far apart and in small groups rather than moving as a single unit means that exactly. They have split up to gather prey, probably just see if one can sight something and then report it so that they can all come to take part.

But what they've found is him.

And that is rarely a good thing.

Yugi looks towards the nearest tree, flicks an ear towards the sound of a movement, and takes off in a full sprint. The hellhound is made for speedy escapes, though it's more by their own powers than agility. He realizes too late that there are far too many wolves for him to outrun. And he does not have the strength to turn incorporeal as needed.

He is hit from the side and his teeth clamp into someone's leg. They snarl, nearly howling in outrage. Teeth cut through the skin of his ear. He smells blood and he realizes belatedly that it's his own. Another wolf hits him from behind. Yugi jerks violently, releasing the first. The impact tears him out of the other's grip. He rolls but forces himself to his feet again immediately.

His tail comes up and a snarl begins to bubble up in his throat. There are seven of them before him, all with shimmering gray and silver pelts. They look almost indiscernible from the next safe for eye color. He flattens his ears against his skull, trying to make them see that he is not a threat.

But he realizes now that they also smell Miho on him. A werewolf's sense of smell is so great that they can smell one's meals for the last month and a half just from close proximity to the other. The sense has to be trained, but he knows that they are doing that now.

He chomps his teeth when one gets too close. Another bites into his leg. He twists and kicks like a horse, hitting them square in the jaw with the swiftness alone. There is not much power behind it, however, and they recover immediately. Yugi bristles further and backs up a step. Teeth clip his shoulder. He spins and snatches at dead air.

The next hit nearly sends him to the ground. It's precisely aimed. Teeth grab at the scruff of his throat. His skin splits and blood sprays the air. He sinks his claws into the ground but holds himself tensely. They will not force him to his belly.

He refuses to allow them the opportunity.

They shake him but he holds firm.

He has been in fights like this before. He's gone against nine nastier hellhounds. He knows how to keep his footing. He also knows how to fight them into a corner. He knows how to get himself out of a corner. But, mostly, he knows how to kill with precision and haste. He knows how to tear their heads from their bodies. He also possesses the ability to hamstring and fight until one is left bleeding nearly to death.

Yugi recounts all of this, readying himself.

But then his captor screams, releasing him.

The sudden movement forces him downwards. He hits the ground so hard that he rolls down the tiny slope without effort. He scrambles for his feet again. The other wolves are frozen. They have wide eyes. Their ears are flattened. Each of their mouths has opened slightly. Their breaths are making small puffs in the air. They wear horrified expressions.

Yugi does not want to allow his curiosity to get the better of him. But he finds it irresistible. His head snaps around to the source of their shock. There, two wolves are caught in the center of their disjointed circle. One is pinned effectively to the floor. The other is bristling, tail raised high, body heaving with fury.

It takes him only moments to recognize what it is.

Yugi whimpers and stumbles forward, unsure of what else to do. The dominant wolf is snarling louder now, shaking so hard that he feels he might be seeing triples. He is horrified as he watches. He wants to argue with them but body language is all he knows of the wolves before him. He made a mistake in not trying to bridge the gap of communication between himself and this newcomer.

He flattens himself to the floor and whimpers as he drags himself forward. Red eyes are blazing as the lycanthrope's head turns. His ears are up, his body large and imposing. He does not look as if he might relax at any point. His shoulders are squared. His teeth are only inches from his subordinate's neck. Yugi breathes out shakily and then whimpers again, wagging his tail now.

For a moment this great imposing force above his former captor's body merely snarls. The fur along his shoulders begins to quiver and rise into a bristle. His head lowers further, as if he might sink his teeth into the other wolf's throat. His lips pull back so far, with such menace, that the corners of his bright eyes wrinkle violently. His cheeks are pulled so that each teeth shows. The exaggeration of his vicious features is hideous. For a moment he simply glares, teeth a mere inch from his subordinate's.

Yugi flattens himself entirely against the forest floor. He quivers and wonders whether to throw himself onto his back. He almost thinks to initiate a play bow, to make the other realize he is okay. But instead he remains where he is and whines, then creeps forward a step. He's crawling with his body so low to the floor that twigs scrape his belly. His chin just barely keeps from rubbing the earth. He wiggles his rump playfully in a means to tell Yami he is okay, wagging his tail briefly.

The moments pass in which he merely stares at the quivering off-white form. He worries for a heartbeat that Yami does not recognize him. He fears for a moment that he will turn on him. He knows that sometimes the adrenaline gets to the minds. It does for either subspecies.

Lycanthropes are more susceptible during discord within the pack. Hellhounds are more susceptible during hunts.

Yugi is a moment from thinking to flee when Yami abruptly leaps for him. The momentum carries him straight for his face. Every instinct tells him to flee or to attack. Most lean towards the latter. A hellhound does not usually run from battle.

Yugi is one of the hellhounds least likely to do so.

He knows how to turn fights on their heads.

He knows how to save himself when it seems hopeless.

But the situation is far from normal. He does not want to harm Yami. He is obsessed with him, yes, but there is a further stirring inside of him that prevents it. He has no intentions of turning his teeth on him. The wolves behind him have nothing to do with it, although they too pose a threat to him. They could easily surge forward, kill him if necessary. If they see him turn his teeth on his own savior they will rip him to pieces.

He immediately tosses himself onto his back. His tail is between his legs. His long limbs are tucked tightly against his thin frame. He angles his head back to bare his throat.

Yami lands right in front of him.

A moment passes.

Yugi waits.

He knows Yami is only a breath away from him. He is still growling faintly. But the tone has changed as has the message. When Yugi blinks and tilts his head, scraping his skull against the ground, he finds himself startled.

The dark wolf drops onto his forelimbs in front of him. He is crouched there, his tail in the air, wagging, his lips pulled back into something of a smile. As Yugi looks at him, his body language speaks of play. But his eyes are savage. It is clear he is not nearly as keen on friendliness as he displays.

He is angry.

He is trembling with rage.

And he will not hesitate to spill blood the moment something goes wrong.

Whose blood is a reality Yugi does not wish to know.

He rolls over onto his belly and wags his tail, leaning forward to lick at his chin in submission. The action is disregarded for a moment. His ears are flickering every which way. He knows what Yami is doing. He's making him appear as much less of a threat. He's making him appear as a friend. He's trying to make the pack back off before bloodshed becomes inevitable.

He is listening to every single word the others say. And he is taking note. His eyes are flashing with something intense and primal. He's angry. He's ready to kill someone. He does not care whether it is family or Yugi. He will do it. If he is pushed, if his family shoves too hard, he will do it.

And Yugi knows he will not think twice.

His subordinates know this as well. They have seen his violent tendencies one too many times. They have seen him rip apart hellhounds for much less than his subordinate has done. At times he is known for ruthlessly killing hounds that have drifted too close to their dens. He is the one that they all bow to when true fights break out. He is the one that all of them fear to challenge.

And so, like a shaky leaf brushed by the wind, a female with a bluish glint to her pale fur, shifts forward and presses herself firmly to the forest floor. She whines in a low distressful noise, full of respect and the willingness to follow. Her bright blue eyes are begging, pleading with her alphas' child not to spill blood.

And, as if with one mind, more and more begin to follow. First a chocolate-brown-and-white-pawed male, then a golden-furred one with glowing amber eyes, and the rest follow swiftly after. Yugi watches them with something of amazement. He has seen this form of solidarity rarely. It strikes him as wondrous that they all bow before the other wolf.

He is not the largest. There is one who stands a little taller, with silver and brown streaks along his larger muzzle, and he has the strangest teal-colored eyes that he has ever seen. They are oceanic, with a depth that makes them appear almost gray. He is the largest. But he is the fourth to fall to his belly. He wags his tail and creeps forward once but does not push further.

It is only his original attacker who does not bow. Instead he gets up, bristling and furious. His tail is up, he is glaring, and he snarls so loudly that some of the other wolves jerk in surprise. Yugi sees the discontent in his eyes before he even hears it in his tone. He is large, a brute of dark gray fur with a savage scar to run along his jaw and beneath his eye. His gaze is a dark and angry violet, his gums a shiny black and blue to match them like storm clouds as his lips pull back to show his teeth.

Yami does not respond for a moment. At first he merely glances at Yugi, seeming almost to wonder at his presence there. Then he blinks, leaning forward. His nose twitches, sniffing him. He knows he smells his adrenaline and a rush of something neither of them completely recognizes, but Yugi also realizes he catches the small trace of fear he had formerly harbored.

But he is not afraid now.

And the other werewolf does not seem perturbed by whatever it is he catches from his small scenting.

 _He runs with the hellhounds_!

It is mutiny to speak such words. The wolf before him knows it as well.

Yami does not hesitate, but instead growls low in his throat. Normally his discord with this wolf is settled with violence. It is not uncommon. He is the number one source for their discontent in the pack.

But he is right. And for a moment the alphas' son nearly sways.

He _does_ run with a hellhound.

The thought makes him blink in shock.

 _Yami hates hellhounds_ , someone else scoffs.

He bristles nearly with embarrassment as he tosses a glance over his shoulder at Yugi. He thanks the gods that the other boy can not hear their thoughts. He thanks Lupa and Fenrir both that they did not bother to bridge their gap in communication.

But he pauses. In the corner of his eye, he spots two faces that make his fur bristle uncomfortably. They must have come after hearing that cry of pain earlier. They stand a little away from the others. Bright golden eyes set against solid dark gray fur and a face of tawny with the most luminescent of blue irises stare back at him curiously.

They have no doubt heard this declaration.

Yami flattens his ears against his head and peers at them unhappily. He knows it will not matter to them what he does. They allow him to make his own choices, to suffer his own mistakes. His consequences are no one's but his own. They allow him to grow and learn this way. They always have and they always will.

But the shame that curls in his belly at the slander from moments before makes him want to bow to their legs and hide behind his mother's long limbs. He misses this childish comfort. He has since he's found out about Yugi's obsession. He's wanted it so much more since he's come to know of Mai.

But he also feels a keen and intense rage which flickers to life in his veins. He aches and burns. His body trembles once with the sensation. He hates them for a moment, only briefly. It is intense but it dies swiftly. He wants more than ever to burrow into his mother's side and pretend that he is a blind pup once more. The responsibility that he's placed on himself has grown too powerful. It seems to smother him. He is tired of it. He wishes for nothing more than the pack to turn to them for guidance again. But they are grooming him and the pack loves him for his ability to adapt more efficiently than even they can.

So he holds their respect more often than sometimes even they do. The thought scares him oftentimes. He wonders at night sometimes if they might harm them and cause further mutiny.

But he knows better.

They love them far more than they do him.

They just respect him enough to look to him more often for answers.

If they were forced to choose between them, he knows they would go for his parents.

He raises his head and jerks his jaws towards the gray wolf who is snarling at another of his rank. He has drowned them out but he is aware of their leering. And he hates them for it.

He chomps his teeth and his shoulders rise. The other wolf jumps, startled, as if he has forgotten his place there. He thinks to himself for a moment that he might bite him. Then he stops himself. There is no reason. The other wolf is merely embarrassed. And he will not fight Yami in front of the alphas. He fears their wrath.

Where he picks on Yami, he will not turn on his true alphas.

Yugi is watching this display for what seems like the first time ever. He has seen lycanthropes pull together. But mostly it was to eliminate a threat. He has seen them fight amongst themselves. But mostly it was over a kill. He has never been directly involved with them.

He has fought his own kind, ripped heads off in fury and backed them into corners to give himself an edge. But he has never been the reason behind a disruption amongst lycanthropes.

The feeling is surreal to him and the thought makes him snort.

The noise, unfortunately, makes each of them turn to him in surprise.

Yami blinks and flicks an ear. No doubt he is listening to something one of the others has said. But his eyes are on the two others. It is clear by the way that the wolves move to allow them room to come closer that they are the alphas. Their very presence makes the malcontent feelings of the others disappear for the moment.

It is a feat that Yami will most likely never be capable of.

The thought makes him sad.

Because, he realizes, more than anything, it will be because of him.

Abruptly, the golden-furred wolf's attention is on Yami. The red-eyed wolf turns to her immediately. They both stare, though the black-furred canine's gaze is lower, looking at her irises instead of the pupils. Her mate stands tall right beside her. And Yugi can see the way their words are worked back and forth even if he is not witness to them. Their ears flicker. Yami's fur rises and falls in twitches. Their heads tilt occasionally.

Very suddenly Yami turns on him. He jerks his head, growling shortly, so sharply that Yugi almost cowers. But he is frozen. And the other is not looking at him angrily. He merely nudges him with his shoulder as he starts to trot past him. Yugi blinks, dazed at first, and then quickly turns to race after him to avoid further scrutiny from the others.

* * *

Yugi is unsure of himself when Yami gestures him closer. The surreal edge of the movement makes him nervous. As he edges closer to him, leaning forward, he feels weak and small for a moment. The other werewolf looks at him, studying, and then he frowns faintly and chews on his bottom lip uncomfortably.

It has been three days since they have last spoken. Yugi is sure there is something terrible about to come from his lips. And he is sure it will make him spiral further. He is sure that the pack has ruined it… It is the first time he has seen Yami since then, because Yami has been skipping school. The weekend was long and drawn out, the days achingly disturbing with his absence. In the woods Yami had simply told him to change back, to get out of there, and then had promptly accelerated his own Change once more before taking off again…

He feels sick as the other boy leans a little further forward to speak to him over the desk. His eyes flicker back and forth swiftly around the room. They are virtually surrounded by endless chatter that neither cares to notice fully.

"There is…a party that I've heard about for the last week," he announces, making Yugi blink in confusion and tilt his head stupidly. "One of the human girls—Vivian, I believe—is holding it. I've been invited. And told to bring someone else…as 'unbearably hot' as me."

Yugi snorts at the way his voice lilts with disgust then smirks a little, the effort halfhearted and somewhat miserable. He does not know entirely where this conversation is going, but the very mention of her name makes him think of the girl he killed and ate when he was too young and foolish to know his own species. It feels as if something unnatural and disgusting is burrowing through him at the very thought of the brunette and the deceased blonde who was always glued to her side.

"Come with me?"

It is a plea. It is small. And it is desperate.

Yugi nearly flinches at the way it makes him seem so weak. He is not used to Yami being so bone-wearied. He looks a lot less powerful than usual and that rattles him somewhat. "When?" he asks, because he cannot breathe another word.

"Saturday."

"Okay."

Yami watches him for a moment. It is something in the back of his mind which makes his skin crawl curiously. He wonders if perhaps he is pushing himself too soon and too fast. His self-mutilation has heightened since their last encounter. The pack has grown suspicious of the way he grows drowsy at times, the way his eyes seem to peer beyond them.

As if he is gazing into Paradise rather than at them.

He has heard faint whispers that he looks deathly. As if he might die any moment. Some members fear he is growing insane. Others worry he might pass before them. There is such fear amongst the pack concerning his health that he wants nothing more than to puke more often than not.

But his five weeks is drawing to a close.

Saturday is the last day of it.

Yugi has met his conditions of five weeks' worth of time.

Yami has nowhere to hide. And nothing to dissuade him with.

Because, as he looks at the other boy, he knows and sees it well. It is a dark and dangerous little worm within the blue-violet of his eyes. It is menacing and terrible, an insanity that cannot be cured.

* * *

Yugi is fearful as the days creep by. Yami is growing paler than ever. His eyes are always distant. There is something in his posture that speaks of weakness. He smells freshly of metallic copper every time he sees him. It keeps growing. It never passes. It makes him nervous and queasy.

He recognizes it because at one time he craved it.

But now, as he looks at the other boy, blood is not what he wants. His obsession has grown and morphed. There is something different, peculiar, to it. He cannot place a name to it. It dumbfounds him. It horrifies him. It _excites_ him. But he knows it scares Yami. He knows he's seen it somewhere in his gaze. And that makes his own so much worse.

When Yugi locks eyes with him, often he sees distances that mountains could never touch. There are lengths of space between his thoughts that make his mind seem hollow. It is as if the gears behind his eyes have stopped moving. He thinks he is slowly passing away before him.

He does not think physically. But he thinks emotionally and mentally Yami is.

He swears on his worst days, as Saturday creeps closer, he sees more and more of it. He sees sparkles like sunlight touching snow, glittering across the surface of ice, and he sees long stretches of shadows shaped like bare tree branches. Yugi thinks he sees Yami's yard long stare morph into things that surpass life and death, somewhere in between.

And it scares him more than anything to look at him sometimes.

But he does it, because he cannot help it. Yugi feels something strong for him that he has no name for, unlike anything he has ever felt before, and it scares him. But it also makes him _just_ powerful enough to go to his side and wish for the best even as he gets blank stares at the worst of times and ghostly smiles at the best.

He realizes belatedly that the five weeks are coming up.

It takes him two days before Saturday to realize.

And it takes him only two milliseconds after that to connect the dots.

* * *

"Do you love him?"

Yami pauses from eating his bagel and considering yet again which spot on his arm bleeds more than his wrists, if there is one, to look at the screen. It's a stereotypical romance movie, with a girl who was hurt long ago and doesn't want to be hurt again and so has her heart cloaked in ice. She's steadily falling in love with another character but is avidly refusing to admit it.

He hates these types of movies. But he knows Kisara and Mana adore them.

He sees them even as he tries not to turn his head and look at their profiles from where their shoulders are resting against each other where they're seated on the couch. Both of them are super girly in the way that they love these stupid movies. But they can turn around and mutilate anyone who poses a threat to the pack. It makes them admirable, he thinks as he glances at his bagel.

He's forgotten how much he loves blueberry with melted butter or cream cheese smeared across the top. He's made it because he knows his parents are unnerved by his recent silence and withdrawn stature amongst the pack. They are all uncertain and confused around him now. Each wolf will look at him in puzzlement and kind, gentle expressions of concern that he is careful to always ignore.

It is a diligent effort.

But most of the time he feels it is used mistakenly.

He cannot always justify why he thinks this way, but he is not sure he cares to.

He is halfway through another bite of his breakfast pastry when the other girl in the scene snaps, "Do you love him or not? Answer me!" He jerks faintly, because the tone makes his skin crawl. But it's really the message in her voice that makes him twitch.

He hates to admit it but he has lost sight of a lot of the affection that his parents show each other. He's always admired them and wanted something similar to that growing up. He's a romantic at heart. He will admit that readily. But that kind of love and devotion seems so far from his reach.

It seems, often, like a drifting dream in his subconscious. Many times he cannot bear to even think about it.

Because the thing he has with Yugi is not anything like love.

Or at least he doesn't think it is.

He considers the way the girl on the screen breaks down into tears and sobs a pathetic "Yes" as if her heart is broken by the admission. He considers this for what feels like hours. But it comes to him that their situations are not parallel. And though he knows this he cannot help but wonder at it.

He contemplates what it is that he and Yugi share.

He refuses to fully put it to words at the moment but he contemplates it regardless.

And he is not sure that he can properly claim that it is love. But he thinks that perhaps down the road he might. _Maybe_. It seems possible to him. Yugi is not an insane creature. At least, not all the time. His personality and mental state is dictated as heavily as Yami's own, their species making it harder than ever to survive fitfully and comfortably. So Yami knows that he is not as insane as he is at the moment _all of the time_. His insanity wanes with the needs that he meets, as does his own bloodlust and desire to eat when he changes frequently.

All of their lives are a battle, frequent and often bloody and so demanding as to make them desire nothing more than to wail in desperation. It is like the tide being pulled back and forth and the moon as she goes about her phases above their heads every night.

And, maybe, with the right amount of dedication and sacrifice—he wants nothing more than to change and cry, to howl his pain at the thought, because how much _more_ does he _alone_ have to sacrifice? And why must it always be him?—he might be able to draw Yugi back from his spiraling mental state. He might be able to draw him back from the edge he so often teeters on and maybe, one day, he'll be able to call it love.

* * *

As the teacher calls role and someone mentions Miho's corpse again, Yami glances sideways towards Yugi. It's a casual backwards glance and the blue-violet-eyed boy wouldn't normally have taken notice to it before. But the fight from days before makes Yugi stiffen at the name and Yami himself feels lightheaded for a moment as their eyes lock.

He thinks for a moment of ocean water and drowning in it. He thinks of a small swim in a river where the waterfall would break his body with a rushing current and ragged rocks to crush his frame. But he swallows it away.

None of that will be his end.

What he has feared for the last fourteen years of his life, he no longer has to think of. Because, most likely, he thinks Yugi will be the one to kill him. He will utterly destroy him, no matter what route it is they may take.

The thought makes him snicker faintly. Every noise within the classroom stops for a moment. He and Yugi keep their eyes locked, oblivious to it. They're both listening to each other's heartbeats and the gentle formations of their breaths.

And for a moment Yami hates him. He truly hates him. But then it fades just as fast. He does not think he has the energy for such a powerful emotion. It takes too much from him in order to survive.

He turns away and for a moment he wishes he could forgive Yugi. There are abruptly dozens of things in his mind that he thinks he could blame him for. But it is not right and most of them are his own problems as well. He has created mass amounts of them for which Yugi was originally blamed.

Miho is an example. Her rotting corpse in the morgue is an example. She sat next to him during class. He bothered to speak to her sometimes. He allowed Yugi to flirt with him. He spoke to him, gave him hope about what they might do. And Miho glanced over, watching them, and Yugi took his frustrations out on her. He grew jealous, thought maybe she might be the person he might be interested in if not for his obsession.

He is a leading cause to her death as well. He may be unable to admit this to the pack but he can to himself. Though he feigns ignorance towards some of the snide remarks and snaps that he would not let them hurt Yugi simply because he was not doing anything wrong that day, he knows. And he admits it. And he is cowardly and so considers he will take it to his grave with him one day.

And suddenly Yami finds himself thinking endlessly about a girl with long silken gold hair like spun metal thread, one who he never met and hopes never to think about ever again. He wishes he did not know this story anymore. He wishes that he had never asked for it. He wishes that Yugi had denied him the knowledge of it.

As he stares into his eyes, he wishes he had never come to Domino City.

But then he feels a dull ache, because that means he has to consider the fact that he would never have met Yugi. And he realizes he can put up with the pain of his own melancholy if it only means that he is truly okay. What he worries about, as the other leans forward with a somewhat unnerved expression and prepares to speak that question he is so often asked now—"Are you okay?"—as if he will ever come to appreciate the effort he must put into it all. Or even if he will be alive at the end of it. He might not break. And he might not be able to fight back. But he does know if he can manage such a feat.

He knows what has happened, though he refuses to admit it to the rest of the pack or even Yugi himself. He knows because he has seen it in his parents' eyes. He knows because his mother looks at his father with that same expression he knows he sometimes gives Yugi in glances.

He and Yugi have handed each other both the blessing and the curse of the werewolf. It is not as dramatic as humans might interpret their bond as mates. It is bitter and sour and it breaks him every time he considers it now. His heart hurts more and more as he thinks on it. It is not a romantic union, nor something like that of a marriage. It is dark and harsh, terrible, and he is horrified as he wonders how it came about.

But he does not truly question it. He hates himself for his inability to truly face it. But he fears more than ever that Yugi does not know what it is. And if he doesn't…if he sees it as nothing more than his obsession, Yami thinks he will die.

And he realizes that it will not be by Yugi's hand that it will happen.

It will by his own.

He's a fool.

He knows that.

Because, somehow, in his efforts to make himself reach to him and possibly offer a guiding hand, he has given his heart to a creature so off balance that he almost fears it.

* * *

The only thing Yami can think about as Friday comes around is what he has been dreading since they first met. He thinks about it and the weight of it makes him crumble. And when he crumbles he wants nothing more than to spill Yugi's blood in retaliation. He does not _want_ to have sex with him to save him. He wants to have sex with him—he admits that, too; only to himself—but he wants it to be for a reason that does not involve _saving his partner_.

He wishes he were human for a moment. Only a moment. But he knows if he was and he had strung Yugi along like this he would be dead. Yugi would have killed and eaten him. And he would be looking for another obsession to follow and watch and eventually lure into bed to fuck and maybe eat.

Yami closes his eyes as he heads for the classroom. He keeps them shut to avoid looking at the other even as he uses muscle memory to navigate his way to his seat. It does not help. He is burned into the back of his eyelids.

He wonders for a moment if it is the pack that keeps him alive now. Yugi may have the potential to fight and kill several lycanthropes if the patrol was small enough or his hunger that violent but he would die in a heartbeat if he went against the thirty in his pack. Maybe their presence is what once gave him his patience.

He wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, however. He wants to think Yugi would have been patient anyways. But the hellhound is so terribly young and volatile and he is not willing to lie to himself that deeply yet.

* * *

The party is in full swing when Yugi finally decides to make an appearance. Jonouchi has been chatting nonstop about it all. The blue-violet-eyed hellhound has hummed in all the appropriate areas and said "ah" where necessary. He has even given him advice on which way he should try to gain one of the hot girl's attention. He does not mention Mai, however, and neither does the blond. He seems to be under the illusion that the rest of the school is. Since her body was never found, she was rumored to have moved.

When she was alive, she had gone from continent to continent. From what he cares to remember, he knows that she left everything behind when she was gone. Everyone who was her friend was cut off. Everyone who was in her phone was deleted. Anyone who spoke to her then could no longer get in touch with her. She changed numbers and emails. She did not keep contact with anyone else. For this reason, she is rumored to have moved.

It helps that not once did her family put up posters saying that she was missing. He remembers her saying that they were going to take off soon enough anyways. That was the only reason she thought to have her one night stand with him. She had planned to fuck the cutest kid in school and go out with a bang.

But he also remembers that she told him her parents practically hated her. H

er mother was no more pleased with her than she would have been had she seen a rat in her china cabinet. And her dad treated her as a child too stupid for her own good. They probably assumed she had run away or something. Yugi doesn't know the answer as to why they had failed to put up posters.

But he does know that her father was very smart to have treated her like she needed to rethink her view of the world and not be so vain. So he has never once corrected the rumors, because they work so well in his favor. Only Yugi, his father, and now Yami know the truth of that situation.

Where she is concerned is a discussion he will not have.

Yugi made a joke earlier that evening, to the blond, but now he wonders about it. Formerly he said, "I would get him drunk and high and bind him to a fucking bed if it would get his legs open" in a frustrated tone. Jonouchi had snorted at him, claimed he needed to get laid, and called it a day. But Yugi is considering it now as he wanders into the house.

It looks like someone has puked blood across the walls and then glued confetti to the plaster as if to distract from the vomit that is the hideous pink color. He curls his lips and glances around. No one else seems to notice so he wonders if it is not just his acute vision that brings out such a disgusting shade in his mind. He rolls his eyes, because he hates being a hellhound at moments like this, and ignores the way his skin suddenly crawls with exhilaration as someone snorts a line on top of the coffee table. He wonders how Vivian manages to have such elaborate parties, if maybe she catches her parents doing it in the pool and they bribe her from telling about it.

He shakes his head when Jonouchi says that he's going to get punch, asks if he wants any. The hellhound can recognize each of the heartbeats in the room, but the steady and firm twist of muscle he wants to hear is not there. He paces a step further inside and his skin crawls again with the exhilaration the doped humans on the couch feel. He bristles after a moment, then shakes his head again. It is not always the best thing in the world to share what others feel.

Yugi is growing lightheaded as he notices some others are drunk around him. It makes him want to grip at his head and groan in frustration. Rather he merely picks his way towards the kitchen. The island is full of snacks. The theme for this room is a hideous and disgusting yellow also very much like puke. He wonders if that is the color theme. He thinks red would be nice; red would be amazing, the color of blood and Yami's vibrant eyes.

His stomach twists at the thought. He glances around him. He can hear chatter all around. It is almost like a cyclone of noise. He is used to this from school. It is the only way he does not turn to the nearest person and snap their neck to make them silent. He blinks lazily. The lights hurt his eyes. The colors of the wall make his mouth dry.

He shakes his head in frustration.

Yugi blinks and his head snaps up. A familiar baritone voice has entered his ears. He straightens where he realizes he has been lounging against the island. He taps his nails against the smooth surface. His stomach twists with excitement.

And then the door opens.

He nearly pounces.

Yami steps inside, phone to his ear, murmuring a congratulatory statement about something or other. Beside him is a blonde with sporadic hair and bright blue-green eyes. She looks mesmerizing in a tight beige colored dress with flowing material and a headdress that is laced with small gems across the top. Beside her the alphas' son looks so sinful Yugi thinks he puts most supernatural creatures to shame.

His mouth is dry yet watering at the same time. Yami is completely dressed in leather but his dark gray cotton tank top, the jacket looking almost like a bomber's from the wars. The dark black is glistening and the choker around his neck glitters where the buckle is touched by the light. He is heavily distracted but he knows he feels Yugi watching him. His weight shifts subtly, uncomfortably, and his eyes flicker to the ground. There is another low mumble into the phone, then a glance at the girl beside him.

He realizes belatedly that she is one of the wolves from his pack. She looks overjoyed to be at a party, as if it is her first. But anyone can tell her experience with this one now speaks of much more time spent at them. She is grinning at her beta who nods distractedly at the voice on the phone then offers her a small smile before turning away again.

It takes him a few minutes to disengage from the conversation. He looks annoyed by the time he does. But he slips his phone into his back pocket, the movement making Yugi groan as his pants tighten uncomfortably at the thought of what rests in that layer of leather stretched so fittingly over his slender hips. He swallows hard and nearly purrs in the back of his throat with satisfaction at the sight of him. Then he watches as Yami addresses the lycanthrope next to him.

Yugi thinks he sees his name formed by his lips, but that could also be wistful desire. He wants to make Yami less nervous but he cannot look away. So instead he drums his nails in a rapid rhythm and presses his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He wants nothing more than to find his way over to him, compliment him until his pants come off, and have his way with him in one of the multiple spare bedrooms.

But Yami does not notice this. Or maybe he does and simply refuses to acknowledge it.

Yugi is rendered extremely jealous by the attention he is spending on the blonde girl. The conversation has stretched out to lengths he deems unnecessary—though, if he had his way, Yami would not be talking at all; for _any_ length of time—but he realizes it is extremely important to the other boy. He is speaking low enough that Yugi cannot hear, his gaze is sharp, his features are determined, and he is searching her eyes rapidly as if he needs to know that she truly understands.

She nods at him several times and then finally her eyes trail to Yugi. Her smile drops and her bottom lip is tugged between her teeth for a moment. Then she nods at Yami again, gives the hellhound a strained grin, and takes off to speak to a boy she has obviously deemed cute enough for her attention. Yami watches her go, frowning faintly, and then shakes his head and makes his way over to the island.

But his eyes are down and the hellhound feels almost sick as all of the excitement rushes from his veins. Yami looks almost crestfallen as he stops in front of him, and his eyes are distant as always when he glances up at him. "Hey."

"Hi."

The moment of silence that _should_ have existed between them is swallowed immediately by the music pulsating from the massive speakers in the wall. Yugi glances at the table, eagerness forgotten, and the lycanthrope looks away towards his companion who is now dancing.

"How long have you been here?"

Yugi blinks and looks at him as he stares at the blonde for a moment longer before turning to him with bright red eyes. "Only around ten minutes," he replies with a small frown, tilting his head. "You look like shit."

"I feel it." Yami pauses, then shrugs and flashes him a cocky smirk. "Doesn't make me too unappealing though, _does_ it?"

He tries to ignore the way his jeans tighten and his words reverberate in his ears. He licks his lips, eyes him, and then snorts in dismissal. "It takes off a small bit of the wow factor, I must admit," he mutters.

The joke is lost on him.

His expression falls and his eyes dart towards the punch table as he considers it. "I can change that if you give me a couple of hours," he says in something of a halfhearted jest but mostly insecure muttering. He blinks slowly, then gives him a lazy glance over. "You clean up well."

Yugi blinks and then looks himself over. He has not even realized before he says this that they are dressed almost to match. The materials of their clothing are different, however, but the colors are the same and the only difference he truly notices are that he has accessorized and Yami has not.

"And you look hot."

He cringes immediately after saying it when the lycanthrope looks less than impressed with a glance over his shoulder. He shrugs, then looks at him with a tilt of his head. "Thank you. I was going for that," he says dismissively. He turns his attention to the table with the drink that is settled there once more and considers grabbing a red plastic cup to drink some. "Hot is always a standard for anyone, I suppose."

"I…" He trails off. He did mean it. And he did mean it like _that_. They both would know otherwise if he claimed he hadn't. So he falls silent and shrugs after a moment. "Are you thirsty?"

"Parched," the lycanthrope hums, the word coming out low and somehow ornery. He realizes he means that he is too parched to be sharing words with him. And in reality the word "parched" means "sober". He cringes as the lycanthrope makes a beeline for the table and has a small chat with the hostess who looks nearly ready to lunge forward and shove her tongue down his throat. But Yami merely gives her a look, harsh and sharp, and it makes her cower enough that she backs away from her former impulse.

Yugi bites his tongue, chews his cheek, and looks upwards towards the ceiling uncomfortably. He shakes his head after a moment, then sighs as the other joins him at the table. His impulse says to reach out and tell him that it is okay. But the most prominent instinct in his mind is that he wants to kiss him. He wants to fuck him into the mattress.

He flinches away when Yami joins him and a brow rises curiously. "Hmm, I look that bad?" he drawls lazily, sipping at the drink and glancing around him. It will take so many cups for him to get drunk that Yugi doubts they have enough liquor to lace the punch with.

"No, I was just thinking about something."

Yami watches him for a moment, expression almost cynical, and then shakes his head faintly. "Whatever you say," he says, and though it's meant to be a joke it does not come off that way. It sounds more as if he might be offended and Yugi yearns for a moment to fix that but eventually pushes the impulse away. For a split second he can barely find it in himself to be around him. For that brief moment he thinks to turn and wander away. But his body is rooted there.

Because Yami is still right here.

"Do you want some punch?" Yami asks after a moment, offering his glass. Yugi watches him for a moment, then reaches out and takes it. Their fingers brush and he feels as if his insides are on fire at the physical contact. He wants to kiss him but he realizes they haven't done that in a long while. It seems almost unnatural for a moment.

So he tips the cup back instead and swallows a mouthful of bland fruit punch with a fiery kick that makes his throat burn briefly. He curls his lip back at the fierce touch and licks at his lips to get rid of some of the sensation. Yami watches him, smirks in amusement, and then purrs, "Vodka too hard for you, Yugi?"

" _Vodka_?" he spits in surprise, narrowing his eyes. "Who the hell spikes punch with vodka?"

"The truly desperate."

It takes Yugi a moment to realize he must have his own flask, that he has dumped the contents into his cup. The thought makes him pause, startled, and he frowns in puzzlement at it all.

"Oh."

"Yes… _oh_."

They pause for a moment and the sound is drowned away for a while. He hesitates, then gives him a brief smile that is so fleeting he nearly cringes.

"Give me a few more of these and we can have all the fun you want."

He says it not as a promise but as a prosecution.

Yugi frowns.

"I…I don't need to fuck you." He tests the words and for a moment they feel stale in his mouth but his mind does not immediately lunge at the impulse to reverse his statement. Yugi blinks, surprised, and the other raises a brow curiously. "It can wait. I'm…not… I don't know how long, but it…it can wait."

"Can it really?" Yami asks, and his voice sounds cynical. "Can it truly wait or are you simply saying that?"

"No, I promise. It can wait."

"And I offered to do this after five weeks. You gave me that, I'll give you this."

"It's not meant to be a trade," he tries to rebut, face feeling hot with a flustered frustration. "I never meant to make you think that that was how this had to go."

"And I never meant to make you think otherwise."

They stay quiet but the music around them makes their ears ring. Yami puts the empty cup on the island between them, pushing it back and forth between his palms. He thinks to crush it with his nails, to split the plastic and pretend that it might bleed. The red of it reminds him of fresh kills. He nearly groans. It's been too long since he's hunted. He wants almost to change for a moment.

Rather he drums his fingers along the sides and gives him a small look of something that Yugi can almost mistake for warmth were it not for the frustration there.

"It'll be okay, Yugi."

"I won't do this with you if you're not ready."

Yami blinks very slowly and then leans forward, baring his teeth. "Do you think you're my first?" he growls.

"Your first? No, just like you won't be mine. But I…I don't need it right now."

The pressure is alleviated from the plastic in his hand. He looks away. "My first was with a packmate," he announces, and his lips quirk up in amusement. "It was amazing. He was slow and gentle and it lasted most of the night. We snuck around and fucked for a while but it eventually grew to be rather tedious. He and I just could not find a way to make ourselves truly click. It's a pitiful thing to me, because he's perfect for me. And yet I cannot make myself love him more than family no matter what I do. And he has found his mate recently in the omega. It's stunning how life turns itself in such ways."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Yami levels him with a harsh sneer. "Because I have to remind myself that this is going to turn out _nothing_ like my times with Timaeus," he spits. "And I have to remember that the reason we could not make it work was because we were not made for each other."

Yugi goes to snarl at him and then freezes. They were not made for each other. He blinks in confusion. Are he and Yami made for each other? He tilts his head and wonders at this.

The other boy gives him a cruel smirk. "I will be back in a few minutes."

He comes back with another cup and Yugi is still fumbling over the thought that perhaps they might be able to call each other mates. It is a concept that he has not truly considered before this moment. He tilts his head, puzzles harder, and his heart hammers in surprise. Is that what this is then?

Because his infatuation has changed.

It has morphed.

And that has never happened before.

He has never offered to step away from a healthy fuck.

He has never considered even speaking the words.

And fooling around with others has always kept him able to walk away before he might risk another human's life.

But Yami's attention is all he craves at times.

And it is all he wants more than even to back away from his downward spiral.

He blinks at him, curious, and waits the rest of the night out watching him.

* * *

Yami wakes in one of the spare rooms. He's half undressed, his shirt and jacket on the ground. He feels a pounding behind his eyes. His ears are aching. His body hurts. But his tailbone is oddly comfortable. It does not feel as if he's become winded. It does not make him question his status throughout the night. He has not had sex. The room would still smell of it.

He blinks, then yawns. His body aches again, flares with pain. But he realizes most of his skin is etched with bruises as he looks it over. It seems as if his night has not passed completely uneventfully. Yugi has left bite marks along his skin, with his fingers serving as a secondary warning to anyone who might have looked his way. He frowns, looks himself over curiously. In the mirror hanging on the wall he finds he appears lost and confused. It is disconcerting to see such an emotion and not recognize it himself. Every inch of his body seems decorated with bright red and splotches of dark purple or gray-tinged yellow.

He frowns and examines his neck. There is not a single mark there, however. His face is clean as well. His pants are bunched uncomfortably around his hips. He frowns deeply now and moves his hands to his lap. When he glances around the room he receives only flashes of what must have happened.

Yugi is above him, below him, kissing and nipping and working to claim his skin. He is nibbling and licking at his sore flesh and gripping him so tightly as to make him hiss. But his voice is most prominent in his ears, and it says softly, "Lay down and I'll take care of you."

What that means is a mystery to him now. Shouldn't he have been ravaged and fucked until he couldn't move? He kicks his legs and his spine tingles. He twists to look it over. There are bite marks along each of his vertebrae. He remembers faintly the way that Yugi pressed into his back, nipping and licking. And he recalls nails biting into his shoulders to keep him in place. His memories supply him with the phantom touch of his knee weighing his down so that he cannot fight him off.

He tilts his head.

Because somehow he still has avoided having sex with him. He purses his lips and glances around. The doorknob twists a few minutes later. Yami jerks and his head spins with shooting pain that comes in the shape of vibrant stars. He aches and hisses in pain. In the doorway is Yugi who has his arms crossed and his body leaned against the wood there. His legs cross at the knees. His lips quirk upwards.

"It's nice to see you awake."

"What happened? I obviously didn't get laid."

"No." He pauses, then frowns as he closes the door behind him. "You were too drunk to know what you were doing."

"Bullshit."

"No, Yami, you were all but incoherent the entire time. You kept growling at me to get it over with and then flinching when I touched you. I figured if I could exhaust you without practically raping you I would do that instead."

He narrows his eyes. "Raping me? Bullshit."

"In legal terms, taking someone when they are nearly unconscious and seem unaware of the very words coming out of their mouth is considered raping someone," he explains quietly, pacing into the room a few steps. "I wound up having to bite you along the spine until you finally collapsed."

Yami blinks in confusion. "You decided not to have sex with me despite how unhealthy you are?"

"It's not as bad as it used to be." Yugi pauses and his mouth opens twice as he considers how to pick his words. They come tumbling out moments later and his eyes are wide, confused as they bore into his. "I've been recovering—s-somehow. I don't…I don't understand it though."

"No?" he mutters, voice skeptical for a moment before growing quiet. "You must have an idea though, correct?"

"Yeah…it's a little out there, but yeah."

"So perhaps you have come upon the same conclusion as I have?"

There is a long moment of silence and Yugi looks around the room. It is a sky blue color, almost like his old room used to be before he killed Mai on his mattress just beneath the skylight that night. He reaches up to dig his teeth into his thumbnail and narrows his eyes into slits. He had colored his room a deep and disgusting shade of dark gray after that, but the color in front of him beckons at his insides.

He wants it back.

He wants his room this color again. It's freeing as he pictures the things he and Yami have done, the jealousy and the rage he's reacted so instinctively with before. He remembers killing Miho for a moment and the fact that Yami accepted it as he seems to everything else that he has so stupidly done.

The realization makes him smile wistfully for a moment.

He turns his head to look at him and his lips twitch a little further. He tips his head to the side. "You know, as far as partnerships go, I think this one is really messed up," he murmurs playfully. "I think Lupa and Fenrir picked a real dud with this one."

Yami stares at him blankly for several moments, so long in fact that Yugi feels almost queasy. Has he assumed wrong? Has he been feeling something Yami has not? He nearly swallows his tongue at the very concept.

"Yes, I think it's something of a joke for them."

They hesitate, looking away from each other.

Yugi quietly dares to ask, "Do you think we could prove them wrong?"

"The gods?" Yami mutters, surprised, and then chuckles in amusement. "Well, I don't see why not. I have proven myself wrong on several accounts with various things since I have come to know you. I never considered that I might turn on a pack member over a hellhound in the woods and yet I did. And I did not think that I might find a partnership with anything less than my own subspecies. I did not even consider that I might recover from the blow of Timaeus finding his mate so soon after we called it quits and yet I have."

The smaller teen gives him a weak smile. "I can't promise I'll be like Timaeus, Yami."

"And I can't promise that I can always save you like you might need, Yugi."

There is a long moment of silence.

"Are you willing to at least try with me?"

Yami blinks up at him, curious, then smirks lopsidedly. "Do you honestly think that I might have gone through all of this _utter bullshit_ for you if I did not think that we might attempt to make it work?"

"No."

"Then you have your answer." He pauses and looks at him almost sheepishly as he adds, "It's not the best but it's the most I can offer right now."

"It's the most I'll take right now."

* * *

 **On a side note, if anyone's upset that I messed up their "happy mate" trope where everything turns out amazing for them just because of that bond, I make NO apologies. I happen to hate those kinds of stories. Relationships don't work like that, no matter if they're supernatural or not.**

 **So, it was not used in this story, because of how long it was and the way the last part of the story unfolds (because it would have required Yami helping Yugi nurse his wounds), but lycanthrope and hellhound saliva is toxic to each other. Either subspecies can experience extreme infection from exposure of saliva to wounds. Due to this, it would have required FAR longer for Yugi to recover after the attack in the woods. But for the sake of the one-shot's length and the last scenes in it, I decided not to include it.**

 **Lupa (Luperca) is the Roman wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus. She is considered a deity of fertility, motherhood and family, and a couple of other things (which I can't think of at the moment and I don't have my research notes at the moment). She was considered merciful to have rescued them from their basket set adrift on the river and she raised them both to become leaders. In this story and any other werewolf story I decide to write, she is considered the goddess of all werewolves who shows herself as the moon (which is why the lycanthropes, being effected by the lunar phases, pray to her first) and the night sky. In any werewolf story I write, she is also partnered with Fenrir.**

 **Fenrir (Fenris) is the Norse wolf, a giant beast who was the son of Loki. He was raised by Odin (I believe?) but his size was so immense that the gods began to fear him. They began to challenge him to games in which each of them would have him tied by rope or chain in order to see if he could break free. They eventually got an enchanted chain, as thin as ribbon, and convinced him to play the game again, but he forced one of the gods to place their hand in his mouth as he would take it in retribution should it be a trick. He tore his hand off when he could not break free and was trapped until the day of Ragnarok when he swallowed Odin and his sons Haiti and Skoll swallowed the moon and the sun. Fenrir is the main deity of the hellhounds, because he is cunning and vicious, and his symbol for them is not the sun but snow and stars. That is why I picked the cold snap for the hellhounds' trigger to change. He is also prayed to by the lycanthropes but he centers more in hellhound prayers than theirs.**

 **Again, since I don't have my notes, I can't fact check myself right now, and I'm kind of in a hurry. So, anyways, yep. Anyone is free to PM me and tell me if I got something wrong.**

 **As always, any reviews are appreciated, constructive or not.**


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